'I 


B    3    bM3    ^3L 


L1BRA.KY 

IIF   THK 

University  of  California. 


OIKT  OK 


Accession  86589       Cla^s 


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V 


COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION 

LAWS 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  REGULATION  OF  IMMIGRATION  BY 
THE  ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA 


BY 


EMBERSON  EDWARD  PROPER,  A.  M. 

Instructor  in  History,  Boys^  High  School,  Brooklyn 


SUBMITTED   IN   PARTIAL   FULFILMENT   OF   THE   REQUIREMENTS 

FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF   DOCTOR   OF  PHILOSOPHY 

IN  THE 

Faculty  of  Political  Science 
CoLUMBu  University 


IGOO 


fe'V^^ 


^  '^  >* 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


PART  I.    GENERAL  SURVEY 

PACK 

CHAPTER  I 
Introductory 7- 

CHAPTER  n 
Encouragement  of  Immigration ,.       .11 

CHAPTER  III 
Restriction  and  Prohibition  of  Immigration      .         . .        .         .17 


PART  II.    DETAILED  SURVEY 

CHAPTER  IV 
Immigration  Laws  of  the  New  England  Colonies      ,         .         .21 

CHAPTER  V 
Immigration  Laws  of  the  Middle  Colonies         ..       ..        .         .38 

CHAPTER  VI 
Immigration  Laws  of  the  Southern  Colonies 56 

(V) 


86589 


Vi  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  VII 
Attitude  of  England  toward  Immigration  .         .         .         .73 


FAGB 


PART  III.    REFLECTIVE  ANALYSIS 

CHAPTER  VIII 
Distribution  and  Characteristics  of  Nationalities        .         .         .77 

CHAPTER  IX 
Conclusion 88 


PART  I    GENERAL  SURVEY 


CHAPTER  I 


INTRODUCTORY 


The  settlement  and  growth  of  the  American  Colonies,  • 
though  carried  on  under  EngHsh  control  and  largely  sup- 
plied by  British  subjects,  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the 
inhabitants  of  that  realm,  America  offered  attractions  to 
the  daring  and  discontented,  the  oppressed  and  persecuted 
of  all  Europe.  Especially  to  the  thrifty  of  all  classes  did 
the  new  world  hold  out  tempting  inducements.  And  so 
people  of  many  nationalities  and  widely  varying  customs 
and  creeds  were  among  the  early  settlers ;  the  lowlands  of 
Holland,  the  plains  of  France  and  the  valleys  of  Germany 
and  Switzerland  each  contributed  to  that  band  of  sturdy  im- 
migrants, the  American  colonists. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  England  could  have  held  this  vast 
territory  if  she  had  pursued  a  policy  of  exclusion  in  its  col- 
onization. True,  the  other  maritime  powers  of  Europe,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  were  in  no  condi- 
tion to  compete  with  her  in  this  field ;  but  it  is  improbable, 
when  we  consider  how  comparatively  feeble  the  colonies 
would  have  been  had  they  depended  for  settlers  on  England 
alone,  that  she  could  have  resisted  the  encroachments  of 
France  and  Holland,  or  that  she  would  have  deemed  it 
worth  the  efi^ort. 

The  early  idea  that  America  was  the  much  desired  East, 
or,  at  least,  a  country  of  marvelous  resources,  whose  river 
1331  7 


8  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [134 

beds  were  lined  with  gold  and  precious  gems,  led  to  a  very 
natural  national  exclusiveness.  Every  new  discovery  was 
thought  to  be  a  veritable  treasure  house,  and  naturally  the 
sovereigns  of  the  different  countries  deemed  it  prudent  to 
reserve  all  rights  for  themselves  and  their  liege  subjects. 

With  the  abandonment  of  the  pursuit  of  gold,  however, 
after  a  century  of  mutual  encroachments  and  petty  warfare, 
came  greater  liberality  in  the  admission  of  foreigners.  Eng- 
lish leaders  began  to  realize  that  there  were  fortunes  in  the 
natural  products  of  their  American  grants,  if  properly  devel- 
oped. But  this  meant  a  permanent  residence  by  actual  set- 
tlers instead  of  temporary  occupation  by  bands  of  adventur- 
ers, and  the  early  years  of  the  seventeenth  century  were  rife 
with  schemes  of  colonization.  Settlements  were  made  in  the 
face  of  the  greatest  obstacles  and  received  every  encourage- 
ment from  the  crown. 

The  economic  theories  of  the  time,  however,  made  national 
greatness  depend  on  a  dense  population,  and  England  could 
ill  afford  to  spare  the  requisite  quotas  of  people  to  build  up 
prosperous  and  populous  colonies ;  accordingly  we  find  the 
genesis  of  American  cosmopolitanism  in  the  early  charters 
granted  to  the  colonizing  companies,  which  gave  the  pro- 
moters permission  to  transport  not  only  liege  subjects,  but 
all  such  strangers  as  might  be  willing  to  present  themselves.' 

*  "  And  we  do  further  .  .  .  grant  by  these  presents,  to  and  with  the  said  Treas- 
urer and  Company  and  their  Successors,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  and  free  for  them 
and  their  assigns  at  all  and  every  time  and  times  hereafter,  out  of  our  realm  of 
England,  and  out  of  all  other  our  Dominions,  to  take  and  lead  into  the  said  voy- 
ages, and  for  and  toward  the  said  plantation  .  .  .  and  to  abide  and  inhabit  there 
in  the  said  Colony  and  Plantation  all  such  and  so  many  of  our  loving  subjects,  or 
any  other  strangers  that  will  become  our  loving  subjects,  and  live  under  our 
obedience,  as  shall  willingly  accompany  them  in  the  said  voyage  and  Plantation," 
Charter  of  1609  granted  to  London  Co.  by  James  I.  Oiarie>  s  and  Constitutions 
of  the  U.  S.,  ii,  1900. 

The  charter  granted  to  the  Mass.  Bay  Company  in  1629  by  Chas.  I.  contains  a 
•imilar  clause.     Hid.,  i,  983. 


135]  /iVrJ?  OD  UCTOR  y  g 

Some  one  has  aptly  said  that  the  seventeenth  century  ^ 
found  the  old  world  and  its  people  so  heartily  tired  of  each 
other,  that  a  partial  separation  was  inevitable.  The  condi- 
tions in  Europe  were  such  that  many  of  its  inhabitants  were 
moved  to  abandon  their  country,  their  homes,  and  their 
friends,  and  to  seek  a  habitation  in  some  other  land  ;  and  so, 
like  their  ancestors  before  them,  they  turned  their  faces  west- 
ward, with  the  great  immigration  to  America  as  the  result.       '^ 

It  is  a  part  of  the  work  of  every  historian  who  writes  a 
history  of  America  to  point  out  the  general  conditions  in 
Europe  which  induced  thousands,  during  the  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  centuries,  to  forsake  their  old  homes  and  to 
seek  new  ones  beyond  the  ocean.  It  will  be  our  purpose  to 
study  this  immigration  from  the  American  side ;  especially 
to  ascertain  the  attitude  of  the  colonial  governments,  which 
were  for  the  most  part  controlled  by  English  settlers,  toward 
the  immigrants  from  other  countries  or  toward  those  of  re- 
ligious and  political  creeds  different  from  their  own ;  in  short, 
to  ascertain  their  efforts  to  encourage,  or  to  regulate  and 
restrict  immigration. 

'  Historians  have  classified  the  European  conditions  which 
led  to  the  great  migration  under  three  categories  :  Religious, 
Political  and  Economic.  In  like  manner  we  may  group  the 
American  conditions,  both  natural  and  artificial,  which  at- 
tracted or  discouraged  immigration,  under  the  same  heads, 
and  find  the  exact  opposites  of  the  European  conditions. 
Thus  religious  intolerance  and  persecution  in  Europe  was 
one  of  the  prime  factors  for  the  discontent,  the  unrest,  and 
the  widespread  desire  for  emigration,  in  many  cases  making 
the  latter  an  absolute  necessity  for  self-preservation 

On  this  side  of  the  water  we  shall  find  that  toleration  in 
matters  of  religion  was  one  of  the  strong  and  attractive 
inducements  held  out  by  the  founders  and  afterward  by  the 
governments  of  the  colonies  to  draw  settlers  to  their  juris- 


I  o  COL  ONI  A  I.  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [135 

dictions,  while  at  the  same  time  we  shall  see  that  intolerance 
in  some  of  the  colonies  served  as  a  most  effective  check  to 
restrict  and  even  prohibit  the  immigration  of  settlers  who 
might  otherwise  have  been  attracted  to  those  places. 
Again,  while  despotic  governments  and  political  and  legal 
inequalities  drove  thousands  from  their  homes  in  the  old 
world,  the  promise  of  mild  government  and  a  guarantee  of 
political  and  civil  rights  were  held  out  by  several  of  the 
colonies  as  special  inducements  to  encourage  the  peopling 
of  their  lands.  Similarly  the  economic  conditions  of 
America  were  the  exact  counterpart  of  the  European : 
There  unoccupied  land  was  scarce  and  subject  to  a  thou- 
sand petty  and  vexatious  burdens;  here  the  poorest  peasant 
might  obtain  more  than  he  could  cultivate,  and  subject  to 
no  burdens  except  a  mere  pittance  as  quit-rent.  In  Europe 
labor  was  cheap  and  in  the  distribution  of  wealth  secured 
barely  enough  to  maintain  itself;  while  America  offered  not 
only  a  maintenance,  but  a  competence  to  the  industrious 
and  thrifty  laborer. 

Although  our  purpose  is  to  study  the  regulation  of  this 
colonial  immigration  exclusively  from  the  American  stand- 
point, we  shall  find  ourselves  compelled  to  observe  it  more 
or  less  in  connection  with  the  European  conditions,  for  the 
reason  that  the  colonial  governments  were  not  free  to  deal 
with  this  question  as  they  chose.  Subject,  as  most  of  them 
!  were,  to  the  control  of  some  proprietor  or  proprietors,  and 
in  the  last  resort,  as  all  of  them  were,  to  the  Crown  of 
England,  their  legislation  on  immigration  must  of  necessity 
conform  to  the  ideas  and  wishes  of  these  superior  powers, 
and  in  many  cases  was  but  the  continuation  or  elaboration 
of  the  founders'  policy,  or  a  co-operation  with  some  project 
of  the  home  government. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE   ENCOURAGEMENT   OF   IMMIGRATION 

The  practical  question  which  confronted  the  colonizing 
companies  or  proprietors,  after  securing  the  Royal  Patent, 
was  how  to  induce  persons  to  leave  their  European  homes 
and  settle  in  America.  Obviously  this  could  be  efTected 
only  by  offering  to  better  their  pecuniary  condition,  either 
immediately  or  prospectively,  or  by  promising  freedom  from 
certain  intolerable  restraints  and  burdens.  These  are  about 
the  only  inducements  which  will  lead  most  people  to  leave 
their  native  heath  and  undergo  the  privations  and  uncer- 
tainties of  establishing  themselves  in  remote  and  strange 
countries.  Accordingly  one  of  the  greatest  attractions 
offered  by  the  founders  of  the  colonies  and  later  by  the 
colonial  governments  was  land.  This  they  possessed  in 
abundance  and  of  unexampled  fertility.  To  the  European 
of  that  period  it  meant  even  more  than  it  does  to-day.  The 
great  industrial  movements  of  these  times  were  then  un- 
known, and  land  was  the  basis  of  society  in  a  sense  hardly 
appreciable  by  us.  Associated  with  it  was  not  only  material 
wealth,  but  political  privileges  and  social  rank.  Naturally, 
therefore,  the  offer  of  fifty  or  one  hundred  acres  to  every 
settler,  even  counting  the  children  and  servants  in  many 
cases,  was  an  alluring  prize  to  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
of  the  old  world. 

The  matter  of  land  grants  by  the  colonial  governments  is, 
however,  a  somewhat  complicated  subject.  It  is  difficult  to 
determine  just  what  authority  the  colonial  assemblies  exer- 
137]  II 


1 2  COL  ON  I  A  L  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [138 

cised  over  the  unsettled  lands  of  the  several  colonies.  Their 
control  varied  as  the  government  was  Charter,  Proprietary,  or 
Royal. 

In  the  first,  as  in  Massachusetts,  the  legislature  apparently 
had  full  control  over  the  public  domain  of  the  colony,  and 
authorized  the  disposal  of  all  unsettled  lands. 

In  the  second  class  there  seems  to  have  been  a  joint  or 
separate  control  on  the  part  of  the  proprietor  and  of  the  as- 
sembly ; '  as  we  find  several  legislative  acts  granting  lands  to 
settlers  already  in  the  country,  or  as  an  inducement  to  en- 
courage the  immigration  of  others;  though  there  are  fre- 
quent instances  of  the  proprietor  or  his  representative  dis- 
posing of  lands  independently  of  the  assembly. 

In  the  last  class  the  same  condition  of  afTairs  existed,  there 
being  several  instances  where  the  colonial  legislature  made 
grants  of  land  for  the  encouragement  of  immigration  ;  though, 
of  course,  their  action  was  subject  to  the  disapproval  of  the 
Royal  Governor,  as  he  was  supposed  to  exercise  the  right 
of  disposing  finally  of  the  unsettled  lands  of  the  jurisdiction.' 

It  is  evident  that  the  colonial  authorities  fully  compre- 
hended what  a  great  attraction  ownership  of  land  was  to  the 
people  of  Europe  ;  for  we  find  their  records  full  of  acts  grant- 
ing lands  on  such  conditions  as  would  offer  the  greatest  in- 
ducements to  settlers. 

These  took  a  variety  of  forms :  An  exemption  from  taxes 
for  a  term  of  years ;  3  special  facilities  for  surveying  and 
plotting;  security  and  guarantee  of  title,  were  some  of  the 
most  frequent  of  these  inducements.  These  favors  were  so 
generous  in  many  cases  as  to  attract,  not  only  immigrants 
from  Europe,  but  from  some  of  the  other  colonies  as  well ; 
and  so,  along  with  the  great  immigration  from  the  old  world, 

^  Alary  land  Assembly  Proceedings  (1637). 

*  Hening's  Statutes,  iii,  304. 

^  Acts  of  the  Assembly  of  A^orth  Carolina  (1715). 


1 2  pi  EN  CO  URA  CEMENT  OF  IMMIGRA  TION  1 3 

there  was  maintained  a  very  considerable  inter-colonial  mi- 
gration.' 

Next  to  land  the  greatest  inducement  was  tolerance  i?t  re- 
ligion. Indeed,  most  historians  credit  the  latter  with  being 
the  more  powerful  attraction  of  the  two.  It  appears  as  an 
important  factor  in  the  settlement  of  the  first  permanent 
English  colonies,  and  during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth 
centuries  America  was  regarded  as  a  place  of  refuge  from 
the  religious  intolerance  and  persecution  of  Europe.  But, 
although  religious  tolerance  was  one  of  the  prime  motives 
for  colonization,  it  is  nevertheless  a  matter  of  common  J 
knowledge  that  the  first  colonists  did  not  welcome  others 
difTering  from  them  in  beliefs.  We  shall  see  further  along 
how  effectually  this  attitude  served  as  a  check  to  immigra- 
tion, which  would  have  otherwise  flowed  into  those  provinces. 

Maryland  was  the  first  colony  to  lay  especial  emphasis  on 
the  matter  of  religious  tolerance ;  and  the  Act  of  her 
Assembly  of  1649  is  the  first  colonial  legislation  offering 
anything  like  a  broad  toleration.  Not  until  the  founding  of 
Pennsylvania  was  a  more  liberal  policy  advocated.  In  fact, 
the  high  stand  taken  by  Maryland  was  not  maintained ;  and 
the  eighteenth  century  found  most  of  the  colonies  with  very 
harsh  statutes  against  the  Roman  Catholics,^  though  tolerant 
of  Protestant  creeds.  Curiously  enough  these  acts  restricted 
the  immigration  of  British  subjects ;  for  it  was  England  that 
persecuted  the  Catholics  and  encouraged  the  coming  of  the 
Protestants  from  other  countries  where  the  former  were 
cruelly  intolerant. 

The  condition  of  Europe  in  this  respect  during  the  seven- 
teenth and  eighteenth  centuries  is  well  known.  It  needs 
only  a  cursory  knowledge  of  the  situation  to  understand  what 
an  inducement  even  a  partial  freedom  from  religious  perse- 

'  Ramsay,  South  Carolina,  i,  20. 

*  Shea,  History  of  Catholics  in  the  Colonies,  357. 


1 4  COL  ONI  A  L  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  f"  j  40 

cution  would  be  to  the  people  of  the  continent.  We  have 
here  the  key  to  the  enormous  immigration  of  Germans, 
French,  and  Swiss  during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  By  the  Act  of  Succession,  England  had  formally 
decided  her  religious  character  and  made  herself  the  ac- 
knowledged champion  of  Protestantism  among  the  nations 
of  Europe.  Nor  did  she  falter  in  her  trust.  An  official 
invitation  was  extended  to  the  persecuted  Protestants  of  all 
countries,  announcing  that  England's  colonies  in  America 
would  welcome  them  and  grant  them  freedom  in  religious 
worship.'  Thousands  accepted  the  offer.  A  large  part  of 
them  sought  the  colonies  direct;  but  many  first  made  their 
way  to  England,  and  were  sent  over  under  government 
supervision  and  patronage.*  In  this  policy  the  colonial 
governments,  as  a  rule,  heartily  co-operated  with  the  author- 
ities in  England,  and  entered  into  competition  for  the  secur- 
ing of  a  fair  share  of  this  immigration. 3 

Another  inducement  used  by  the  colonies  to  attract 
settlers  was  naturalization.  According  to  the  laws  of 
England,  under  which  the  colonies  were  theoretically 
governed,  no  alien  could  hold  or  bequeath  property.  The 
trouble  and  delay  avoided  by  securing  these  rights,  which 
the  colonies  offered  through  naturalization  or  denization, 
became  an  important  factor  in  attracting  alien  settlers.  That 
the  colonists  were  conscious  of  this,  is  seen  in  the  preambles 
of  their  Naturalization  Acts,  which  set  forth  as  a  distinctive 
object  the  encouragement  of  new  settlers. ■♦  There  was, 
however,  apparently   no  attempt  at  uniformity  among  the 

'  Proclamation  of  Queen  Anne  to  the  Protestants  of  Germany.  Rupp's  Collec- 
tions, 5. 

'  Documentary  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  iii,  423. 

^  Baird,  Huguenot  Emigration  to  America,  ii,  169. 

*  Maryland  Archives,  iii,  466.  Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  History  of 
New  York,  v,  469. 


1 4 1 1  EN  CO  URA  CEMENT  OF  IMMICKA  TION  \  5 

colonies,  as  regards  the  time  of  residence  necessary  before 
naturalization  was  conferred.  It  varied  all  the  way  from 
twenty  years  to  a  few  months ;  and,  in  many  cases,  letters  of 
naturalizatfon  were  even  issued  to  aliens  in  England ;  so  that 
they  landed  in  the  colonies  with  all  the  rights  and  privileges 
of  British  subjects.' 

Still  another  expedient  adopted  by  the  colonies  to  pro- 
mote the  peopling  of  their  lands  was  the  offering  of  bounties. 
This  took  the  form  either  of  money  payments  to  the  actual 
settlers  or  of  rewards  to  agents  who  would  induce  a  certain 
number  of  foreigners  to  immigrate  and  to  settle  in  the  col- 
ony. In  some  instances  it  was  a  reward  to  the  master  of  the 
vessel ;  '^  and  again  it  was  given  to  the  settlers  in  the  form  of 
tools  and  agricultural  implements. 3 

The  great  demand  for  labor  led  to  various  expedients  for 
encouraging  the  importation  of  servants  and  laborers.  In 
Pennsylvania  and  in  some  of  the  southern  colonies  the  im- 
migration of  white  servants  was  fostered  by  paying  their 
passage  money,  and  thereby  securing  their  services  for  a 
term  of  years.  These  "  Redemptioners  "  as  they  were 
called,  were  thus  enabled  to  make  their  way  to  the  colonies, 
and  in  a  few  years  to  establish  homes  of  their  own.'*  The 
importation  of  Negro  and  Indian  servants  received  both  en- 
couragement and  restriction,  depending,  of  course,  upon  the 
colony  and  the  period  of  time. 

The  New  England  and  Middle  Colonies  never  officially 
encouraged  the  importation  of  slaves  ;  the  Southern  Colonies 
on  the  other  hand  were  somewhat  vacillating  in  their  legis- 

^  Baird,  Httguenot  Emigration  to  America,  ii,  173.  In  1740  Parliament  passed 
a  general  Naturalization  Act  for  the  Colonies.  13  Geo.  II.  c.  4.  Acis  0/  Parlia- 
ment. 

'  Ramsay,  South  Carolina,  i,  10. 

'  Rupp's  Collections,  14. 

*  Watson's  Annals,  ii,  266. 


1 6  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [142 

lation  on  this  matter;  sometimes  encouraging  and  then 
passing  measures  to  restrict  greatly  and  even  to  prohibit  the 
importation  of  slaves.' 

As  has  already  been  intimated,  the  colonial  legislatures, 
especially  under  Royal  and  Proprietary  control,  were  not  free 
to  act  as  they  chose  in  the  matter  of  encouraging  or  restricting 
immigration.  The  ownership  of  the  land  being  in  the  hands 
of  either  the  King  or  the  Proprietor,  they  sold  or  allotted  it 
at  their  pleasure,  made  contracts  for  the  immigration  of  set- 
tlers, and  otherwise  carried  on  matters  to  further  their  own 
interests.  Much  of  the  correspondence  between  the  Colon- 
ial Governors  and  the  home  authorities  relates  to  the  dispo- 
sition of  new  settlers  ;  and  their  messages  to  the  assemblies 
frequently  urge  greater  care  and  attention  to  the  peopling  of 
unoccupied  lands.^  The  colonists  themselves,  or  their  repre- 
sentatives in  the  Assembly  could  do  little  in  the  matter, 
other  than  attempt  friendly  co-operation  with  the  King  or 
Proprietors ;  and  most  of  their  legislation  on  the  subject 
either  was  due  to  the  expressed  wish  of  these  authorities,  or 
was  in  line  with  their  general  policy. 

The  Charter  Governments,  on  the  contrary,  assumed  a 
more  independent  attitude.  Although  we  find  very  few  meas- 
ures expressly  intended  to  encourage  immigration,  yet  we 
shall  see  that  they  took  very  decided  ground  on  the  ques- 
tion of  anti-immigration. 

^  Du   Bois,    Suppression   of   the   African    Slave    Trade,   Harvard    Historical 
Studies,  i. 

*  fournal  of  the  Assembly  oj  N.  V.,  i,  756. 


CHAPTER  III 

ANTI-IMMIGRATION  LAWS 

As  might  naturally  be  supposed,  the  anti-immigration 
laws  passed  by  the  American  colonists  were  few  in  number, 
and  very  Hniited  in  their  application.  During  the  first  cen- 
tury of  English  colonization,  when  but  comparatively  few 
people  were  scattered  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  when  labor 
was  everything,  land  nothing,  and  the  lives  of  the  settlers 
were  in  imminent  danger  from  wild  beasts  and  wilder  men, 
it  could  hardly  be  expected  that  the  colonists  would  place 
many  restrictions  on  any  immigrants  who  were  daring 
enough  to  endure  the  hardships  of  making  a  home  in  this 
new  country,  and  who  could  aid  them  in  repelling  hostile 
foes,  and  bear  a  share  of  the  common  burdens.  And,  in- 
deed, we  shall  find  our  supposition  quite  correct. 

Although  most  of  the  settlements  were  made  by  English- 
men, they  nevertheless  differed  fundamentally  in  character 
and  purpose,  and  pursued,  in  some  instances,  widely  varying 
policies  in  the  admission  of  new  settlers.  Massachusetts 
discouraged  the  coming  of  all  who  did  not  agree  with  her 
policy  of  ecclesiastical  domination.'  Virginia,  whose  found- 
ers were  avowed  Episcopalians,  wanted  no  Non-Conformists, 
and  took  active  measures  to  enforce  this  policy.^ 

The  fact  that  England  undertook  the  colonization  of  this 
country  made  it  certain  that  Protestantism  was  to  be  the 
dominating  religion  of  the  colonies  ;   and  the  records  of  their 

^  Winthrop,  Life  and  Letters  of  Gov.  Winthrop,  1 82. 
'  Ilening's  Statutes,  i,  155. 

143]  17 


J 


1 8  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  [144 

legislation  show  a  general  tendency  to  restrict  the  immigra- 
tion of  Catholic  settlers.  These  statutes  vary  in  purpose 
from  absolute  prohibition,  in  the  Puritan  colonies,  to  petty 
regulations  and  annoyances,  as  practiced  in  some  of  the  mid- 
dle colonies. 

Many  of  the  early  charters  expressly,  or  impliedly,  for- 
bade the  admission  of  Catholics,'  and  during  the  first  part 
of  the  seventeenth  century  the  immigration  of  this  sect  was 
so  unimportant  that  no  especial  attention  was  given  to  them 
outside  a  few  of  the  colonies.  But  with  the  final  commit- 
ment of  England  to  the  cause  of  Protestantism  there  were 
severe  parliamentary  statutes  passed  against  the  Catholics, 
which  were  soon,  either  wholly  or  partially,  embodied  in 
colonial  legislation.  The  colonial  archives  of  the  period 
are  filled  with  laws  placing  restrictions  in  the  way  of  Catholic 
settlers.  These  took  the  form  of  a  duty  on  Irish  Catholic 
servants ;  a  positive  prohibition  of  the  Roman  worship ;  a 
double  tax  on  their  lands ;  and  the  "  Abjuration  Oath," 
which  practically  excluded  members  of  this  faith,  unless 
they  chose  to  break  their  vows.^ 

Strangers  were  legitimate  objects  of  suspicion  in  the  early 
colonization  days,  apparently  as  much  from  the  fear  that 
they  might  become  a  burden  on  the  community,  because  of 
indigence,  as  from  their  possible  hostile  attitude  to  the  relig- 
ious and  secular  government  of  the  colony.  The  New  Eng- 
land colonies  were  especially  circumspect  in  the  admission 
of  strangers,  and  passed  heavy  fines  on  those  who  brought 
in  or  entertained  strangers  without  leave  from  the  authori- 
ities.3     This  cautious  attitude  was  quite  generally  maintained 

^  Charter  of  1609.     Charters  and  Constitutions  uf  U.  S.,  ii,  1902. 

*  See  Maryland  Archives  and  Hening's  Statutes  for  the  last  quarter  of  the  sev- 
enteenth century  and  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth. 

^  A\, II.  Prov.  Papers,  \,  OfOn.     Acts  and  Resolves  (Mass.),  iii,  982.     Brigham's 
Laws  (Plymouth),  150. 


1 4 5  j  ANTI'IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  I^ 

by  the  Puritan  settlements,  and  in  the  eighteenth  century- 
Massachusetts  passed  several  elaborate  acts  regulating  the 
admission  of  immigrants,  practically  excluding  those  whose 
personal  effects  were  not  sufficient  to  enable  them  to  begin 
life  in  the  colony  without  the  aid  of  the  older  settlers.' 

The  great  influx  of  Germans  into  the  middle  states  from 
1700  to  1750  raised  problems  which  have  a  familiar  sound 
to  those  who  have  followed  the  arguments  on  the  immigra- 
tion question  of  our  own  times.  The  immigration  of  foreign- 
ers into  Pennsylvania  became  so  great  that  the  danger  of  its 
degenerating  into  a  foreign  colony  was  openly  proclaimed,* 
and  for  a  few  months  in  the  year  1729  the  Quaker  province 
had  on  her  statute  book  the  most  comprehensive  anti-immi- 
gration act  ever  passed  in  America,  namely,  a  tax  on  all 
foreigners  coming  into  the  colony. 3 

One  of  the  most  instructive  and  interesting  phases  of  col- 
onial immigration  is  that  which  concerns  the  transportation  of 
convicts.  Some  of  the  earliest  tracts  in  advocating  the 
further  exploration  and  settlement  of  America  by  the  Eng- 
lish, set  forth  the  possibility  of  relieving  the  mother  country 
of  her  indigent  and  criminal  classes  by  transporting  them 
to  the  new  world. '^  This  system  of  deportation  of  crim- 
inals was  quite  possibly  suggested  by  the  fact  that  the  nat- 
ural products  of  the  southern  colonies  rendered  the  "  planta- 
tion system"  the  most  efTective,  and  created  a  demand  for 
servant  labor.  From  a  very  early  date,  therefore,  the  im- 
portation of  convicts  was  adopted  as  a  wise  economic  and 

^  Acts  and  Resolves,  ii,  337. 

'  Douglass'  Summary,  ii,  326. 

■'  Colonial  Records  of  Penna,,  iii,  395. 

* "  We  might  inhabit  some  part  of  those  countries  and  settle  there  such  needy 
of  our  own  which  now  trouble  the  Commonwealth,  and  through  want  here  at 
home  are  enforced  to  commit  outrageous  offences,  whereby  they  are  daily  con- 
sumed by  the  gallows."  "  A  Discourse  lo  prove  a  passage  by  the  A'orthivest  to 
Cataya  and  the  hast  Indies^''  by  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert.     Hakluyt,  iii,  32. 


20  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [  j  46 

social  scheme.  England  would  thus  be  relieved  of  the  bur- 
den ;  the  changed  environment  would  have  a  tendency  to 
improve  the  character  of  the  criminal,  and  the  planters 
would  have  the  benefit  of  their  labor. 

But,  however  admirable  as  a  theory,  the  practical  results 
were  far  from  satisfactory.  When  the  system  began  to  as- 
sume a  definite  organization,  and  finally  received  parliamen- 
tary sanction,  a  vigorous  protest  went  up  from  the  colonists.' 
Absolute  prohibition,  restrictive  duties,  and  systematic  regu- 
lation were  at  different  times  embodied  in  colonial  legisla- 
tion ;  but,  for  the  most  part,  all  were  disallowed  by  the 
English  authorities.  Thousands  of  these  convicts  were  thus 
forced  on  the  colonies,  and  not  until  they  had  secured  their 
political  independence  were  they  able  to  prohibit  the  traffic. 

*  It  was  expected  that  Geo.  III.  would  relieve  them  from  this  burden,  and  when 
he  showed  no  endeavor  in  that  direction,  Franklin  is  said  to  have  observed  that 
the  colonists  ought  to  send  a  rattlesnake  for  the  King's  garden  as  a  suitable  pres- 
ent in  return. 


PART  II     DETAILED  SURVEY 


CHAPTER  IV 

IMMIGRATION   LAWS    OF   THE   NEW   ENGLAND    COLONIES 

It  is  a  remarkable  coincidence  that  the  portion  of  America 
to  which,  in  1614,  John  Smith  gave  the  name  of  New  Eng- 
land, should  prove  to  be  the  place  which,  on  account  of  its 
future  inhabitants  and  institutions,  most  appropriately  de- 
served the  name.  To  no  other  colony  or  group  of  colonies 
could  the  designation  have  been  so  aptly  applied ;  for  in 
none  of  them  did  the  English  blood  remain  so  pure,  and  the 
English  traits  of  character  continue  so  unchanged. 

Palfrey,  in  his  "History  of  New  England,"  says:  "The 
founders  of  the  commonwealths  of  New  England  were  Eng- 
lishmen. Their  immigration  to  this  section  began  in  1620. 
It  was  inconsiderable  till  1630.  At  the  end  of  ten  years 
more  it  had  almost  ceased.  A  people  at  that  time  of  about 
20,000  persons  thenceforward  multiplied  on  their  own  soil 
in  remarkable  seclusion  from  other  communities  for  nearly 
a  century  and  a  half."  During  these  years  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Europeans  of  various  nationalities  sought 
homes  in  the  English  colonies  of  America,  bringing  with 
them  their  diversified  customs  and  creeds,  amalgamating 
with  the  earlier  settlers,  and  greatly  modifying  their  distinct- 
ive traits ;  but  very  few  of  this  great  throng  made  their  way 
to  the  colonies  of  New  England,  and  the  few  who  did  left  no 
mark  of  their  existence  on  the  community  life. 

One  reason  for  this  almost  universal  neglect  of  New  Eng- 
147]  21 


22  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  [i^g 

land,  after  1640,  by  the  immigrants  from  Europe  is  very  ap- 
parent. It  was  due  to  the  quality  and  comparative  scarcity 
of  the  land,  and  to  the  rigor  of  the  climate.  To  the  south 
of  these  shores  were  vast  tracts  of  unappropriated  land, 
incomparably  more  fertile  and  productive,  and  possessing  a 
climate  almost  tropical  in  comparison  with  that  of  this  lati- 
tude. Naturally  such  places  would  attract  the  immigrants 
from  Europe  who  were  desirous  of  establishing  homes  in 
America,  and  whose  only  capital  was  strong  bodies  and  a 
willingness  to  work.  But  this  reason,  while  fundamental, 
does  not  adequately  explain  the  phenomenon.  A  study  of 
the  history  of  the  Englishmen  who  settled  in  this  section 
reveals  the  fact  that  it  was  not  wholly  involuntary,  on  their 
part,  that  no  appreciable  portion  of  the  great  migratory  wave 
touched  their  shores.  Indeed,  we  shall  find  that  it  was  their 
avowed  policy  and  studied  efTort  to  prevent  any  considerable 
influx  of  foreigners,  differing  from  them  in  language  and  cus- 
toms. The  admission  of  a  body  of  foreigners,  such  as  poured 
into  Pennsylvania  and  the  southern  colonies,  during  the  first 
half  of  the  i8th  century,  they  would  have  deemed  a  great 
calamity.  In  various  ways,  therefore,  they  set  up  barriers 
which  repelled  many  who  might  otherwise  have  settled 
among  them ;  and  thus,  while  to  the  south  there  was  devel- 
oping a  cosmopolitan  nation,  the  inhabitants  of  New  Eng- 
land lived  on  practically  untouched  by  the  great  ethnic  cur- 
rents until  the  present  century. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 

It  seems  a  fair  inference,  from  the  writings  of  the  founders 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  from  a  careful  study 
of  their  early  government,  that  it  was  their  aim  to  found  a 
state  based  on  the  Scriptures,  interpreted  strictly  according 
to  their  own  ideas.  Accordingly,  it  seemed  wise  and  even 
essential  that  all   persons   differing  in   matters   of   faith  and 


149]  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES  \     23 

worship  should  be  prohibited  from  settling  amongst  them. 
One  of  the  earliest  laws  of  the  colony  restricted  political  ^ 
franchise  to  members  of  the  established  church,  and  for  a 
few  years  the  little  commonwealth  seemed  in  a  fair  way  to 
develop  along  the  lines  of  its  leaders.  But  gradually  dissent 
and  even  opposition  arose;  and,  in  May  of  1637,  the  Gen- 
eral Court  passed  an  order  to  the  efTect  that  no  town  or 
person  in  the  colony  should  receive  or  entertain  any  new- 
comer wihout  permission  of  the  authorities.'  The  famous 
"Antinomian  Controversy"  was  at  its  height;  and,  accord- 
ingly, the  order  called  forth  bitter  criticism  from  the  oppo- 
sition, it  being  urged  that  the  object  of  the  measure  was  to 
prevent  any  additions,  from  abroad,  to  their  faction.  Gov- 
ernor Winthrop  felt  called  upon  to  defend  the  action  of  the 
Court,  which  he  did  in  a  somewhat  lengthy,  but  exceedingly 
able  argument.-  The  charter  gave  them  authority  to  pro- 
tect themselves  "  by  all  fitting  ways  and  means  whatsoever, 
from  all  such  persons  as  should  attempt  the  destruction,  in- 
vasion, detriment,  or  annoyance  of  any  of  the  plantations  or 
inhabitants  thereof." 

Winthrop   evidently  had   that   clause    in    mind    when    he 
penned   his   defense,  though   he   makes    no  reference   to  it. 

^ "  It  is  ordered  that  no  Town  or  person  shall  receive  any  stranger  resorting    ^ 
hither  with  intent  to  reside  ...  or  entertain  any  such  above  three  weeks,  except 
such  persons  shall  have  allowance  under  the  hands  of  some  one  of  the  counsel- 
lors, or  two  other  magistrates  .  .  .  upon  pain  that  every  Town  shall  forfeit  ^100 
for  every  offense."     Records  of  Mass.  Bay  Colony,  i,  196. 

Plymouth  Colony  had  passed  a  similar  law  the  preceding  year.  Brigham's 
Laws,  57. 

''"...  If  we  heere  be  a  corporation  established  by  free  consent,  if  the  place 
of  our  cohabitation  be  our  owne,  then  no  man  hath  a  right  to  come  into  us  with- 
out our  consent  ...  If  we  are  bound  to  keep  off  whatsoever  appears  to  tend  to 
our  ruine  or  damage,  then  may  we  lawfully  refuse  to  receive  such  whose  dis- 
positions suite  not  with  ours  and  whose  society  (we  know)  will  be  hurtful  to  us." 
A  Defence  of  an  order  of  the  Court,  1637.  ^i/^  and  Letters  of  John  Winthrop, 
182. 


COLONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS 


[150 


This  early  law  contained  nothing  whatever  of  persecution  or 
any  attempt  to  interfere  with  freedom  of  conscience.  It  was 
\  simply  a  decree  of  non-admission  for  the  purpose  of  pre- 
'  venting  political  strife  or  an  economic  burden,  and  to  make 
more  secure  the  success  of  their  enterprise.  The  magis- 
trates apparently  had  few  occasions  to  refuse  admission  to 
new-comers.  By  the  year  1640  immigration  had  practically 
ceased,  and  the  policy  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  was 
becoming  pretty  well  known  in  England.'  Until  the  arrival 
of  the  Quakers  about  fifteen  years  later,  but  few  persons 
sought  these  shores  who  were  not  in  sympathy  with  the  aim 
and  purpose  of  the  colony.  The  only  exception  to  this 
statement  was  in  1645,  when  some  of  the  towns  made  com- 
plaint that  they  were  being  burdened  with  the  increasing 
number  of  poor  and  indigent  settlers.  The  General  Court 
appointed  a  committee  of  three  to  formulate  a  law  in  regard 
to  this  matter.^  The  report  of  the  committee  does  not 
appear  in  the  proceedings ;  but  ten  years  later  the  matter 
was  again  brought  to  the  notice  of  the  court,  which  enacted 
an  order  to  prevent  the  growing  evil.3 

I  '  "Twenty  thousand  persons  had  removed  thither  before  the  year  1641,  when 
the  ardor  of  emigration  cooled,  owing  no  less  to  the  meeting  of  Parliament  than 
to  apprehensions  from  her  rigour  and  to  the  folly  of  her  laws;   which  preferred 

1     orthodoxy  of  faith  to  augmentation  of  numbers."     Chalmer's  America,  79. 

^Records  of  Mass.  Bay  Colony,  iii,  15. 

^ "  There  being  complaint  to  this  Court  of  very  great  change  arising  in  several 
Towns  by  reason  of  strangers  pressing  in  without  the  consent  or  approbation  of 
the  inhabitants,  and  there  being  no  law  to  prevent  the  same;  this  Court  doth 
therefore  order,  that  henceforth  all  Towns  in  this  jurisdiction  shall  have  liberty 
to  prevent  the  coming  in  of  such  as  come  from  other  parts  of  these  jurisdictions, 
and  all  such  persons  as  shall  bee  brought  into  any  such  Town  without  the  consent 
and  allowance  of  the  prudential  men  shall  not  be  chargeable  to  the  Town  where 
they  dwell,  but  if  necessity  require  shall  be  relieved  and  maintained  by  those  that 
were  the  cause  of  their  coming  in,  of  whom  the  Town  or  Selectmen  are  hereby 
empowered  to  require  security  at  their  entrance  or  else  forbid  their  entertain- 
ment."    Records  of  Mass.  Bay  Colony,  iii,  376. 


I  5  I  ]  OF  THE  NE  W  ENGLAND  COLONIES  2 5 

It  is  not  our  purpose  to  dwell  at  any  length  on  that 
tragical  period  in  the  history  of  New  England  which  has 
since  called  forth  so  many  discussions  and  controversies, 
both  of  defense  and  denunciation — the  persecution  of  the 
Quakers. 

For  a  period  of  several  years,  beginning  with  1656,  the 
records  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  and  indeed  of  all 
of  the  New  England  Colonies,  except  Rhode  Island,  are 
filled  with  legislation  designed  to  prevent  the  coming  of  the 
Quakers  and  the  spread  of  their  "  accursed  tenets."  Whip- 
pings, imprisonment,  banishment,  and  in  a  few  instances 
capital  punishment,  were  the  order  of  the  day.'  To  what 
extent  these  various  laws  restricted  the  immigration  of  this 
sect,  it  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  ascertain.  That  they 
were  not  prohibitive,  and  consequently  did  not  meet  the 
expectations  of  the  authorities,  is  painfully  evident ;  for,  in 
spite  of  the  severe  penalties,  members  of  that  sect  continued 
to  come,  and  under  the  provisions  of  the  laws  were  enacted 
cruelties,  the  justification  of  which  calls  for  a  generous  stretch 
of  historical  charity.  There  can  be  but  little  doubt,  how- 
ever, that  many  Quakers  were  deterred  from  immigrating  to 
these  inhospitable  shores ;  while,  judging  from  the  throngs 
that  afterward  poured  into  Pennsylvania  and  the  Jerseys,  it 
is  fair  to  presume  that,  had  they  received  a  welcome  to  the 
New  England  Colonies,  instead  of  persecution  and  banish- 
ment, a  very  considerable  number  would  have  found  homes 
in'that  section. 

The  charter  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Company  contained 
no  direct  or  implied  reference  to  Catholics,  and  nearly  a 
quarter  of  a  century  passed  before  laws  aimed  at  their 
exclusion  were  passed  ;  though  it  is  very  probable  that  none 

'^Records  of  Mass.  Bay  Colony,  1656-1661.  Brigham's  Laws  (Plymouth  Col- 
ony). Acts  of  the  Commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies.  Plymouth  Col.  Records, 
X,  155- 


V 


d' 


V( 


26  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [1^2 

of  that  persuasion  were  permitted  to  live  in  either  of  the 
Massachusetts  Colonics.  The  order  giving  magistrates  full 
authority  over  the  admission  of  immigrants,  could  easily  be 
made  to  exclude  all  persons  professing  obedience  to  the 
Church  of  Rome.  The  French  Catholics  had  made  settle- 
ments in  the  valley  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  on  the  shores  of 
Nova  Scotia  long  before  the  establishment  of  permanent 
colonies  in  New  England ;  and  ten  years  before  the  landing 
of  the  Pilgrims,  the  Jesuits  had  made  their  way  to  the 
French  settlements.  From  that  time  until  the  American 
Revolution,  this  strange  sect,  largely  because  of  their 
influence  over  the  Indians,  became  the  terror  of  the  frontier 
settlers,  and  their  presence  in  any  of  the  colonies  was  an 
occasion  for  alarm  and  distrust. 

The  first  act  passed  by  the  Massachusetts  Colony  against 
them  was  in  1647,  ^i^d  the  fear  with  which  they  were  re- 
garded may  be  inferred  from  the  preamble  of  the  law.'  The 
Act  itself  ordered  that  all  Jesuits  and  other  ecclesiastical 
persons  ordained  by  the  Pope  should  not  enter  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Colony;  persons  suspected  of  belonging  to  that 
order  were  to  be  subjected  to  banishment,  and  if  taken  a 
second  time  the  penalty  was  death.  However,  if  Provi- 
dence saw  fit  to  inflict  just  punishment,  the  authorities  evi- 
dently did  not  presume  to  add  the  effects  of  their  wrath ; 
and  to  this  end  it  was  provided  that  all  Jesuits  and  Priests 
cast  ashore  by  shipwreck  should  be  allowed  sufficient  time 
to  take  passage  for  some  other  port. 

Nothing  further  is  found  on   this  subject  until   the   year 

^ "  This  Court  taking  into  consideration  the  great  wars,  combustions  and  divisions 
which  are  this  day  in  Europe,  and  that  the  same  are  observed  to  bo  raised  and 
fomented  chiefly  by  the  secret  undermining  and  solicitations  of  those  of  the 
Jesuitical  Order,  men  brought  up  and  devoted  to  the  religion  and  Court  of  Rome, 
which  hath  occasioned  divers  states  to  expel  them  from  their  territories,  for  the 
prevention  whereof  among  ourselves:   It  is  ordered,"  etc.     Records  of  Mass.,  \\, 

193- 


153]  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES  2/ 

1700,  when  the  Court  again  declared  that  the  Jesuits  and 
Popish  Priests  had  "  by  subtile  insinuations  seduced  and 
withdrawn  the  Indians  from  obedience,  and  stirred  them  up 
to  sedition  and  open  rebellion."'  To  prevent  this  threat- 
ened calamity,  all  such  persons  then  within  the  jurisdiction 
should  immediately  depart  or  suffer  "  perpetual  punish- 
ment." 

In  a  letter  published  among  the  Hutchinson  Papers,  a 
writer  of  that  period  declares,  "  The  aim  of  the  Jesuits  is  to 
engage  the  Indians  to  subdue  New  England."^  The  wonder- 
ful influence  which  they  exerted  over  the  Indians,  and  the  fear 
that  they  would  incite  the  savages  to  massacre  the  English 
settlers  seems  to  have  been  the  chief  motive  in  all  the  colon- 
ies for  the  severe  laws  which  were  passed  against  that  Order. 
Whether  these  laws  likewise  served  to  restrict  the  immigra- 
tion of  Catholic  laymen  can  only  be  conjectured.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  no  appreciable  number  of  that  sect  were  to  be 
found  in  Massachusetts  prior  to  the  Revolution.  They  / 
could  not  become  citizens  or  voters,  being  unable  to  take 
the  necessary  oath  of  allegiance  ;  and  in  various  other  ways 
the  Massachusetts  Colony  manifested  her  unwillingness  to 


receive  settlers  of  that  persuasion. 

Slavery  was  a  small  factor  in  New  England  because  eco- 
nomic laws  forbade  its  growth  ;  nevertheless,  it  was  recog- 
nized as  an  institution  in  the  "Body  of  Liberties"  (1641) — 
"  There  shall  be  no  bond  slavery,  villainage,  or  captivity 
amongst  us,  unless  it  be  lawful  captives  taken  in  just  wars, 
and  such  strangers  as  willingly  sell  themselves  or  are  sold  to 
us."  The  Puritan  authorities,  however,  were  sticklers  for 
conscience;  and,  in  1646,  we  find  an  order  of  the  General 
Court  protesting  against  the  crime  of  man-stealing,  and  or- 
dering that   certain    negroes,  who    had    been    surreptitiously 

^  Acts  and  Resolves,  i,  423. 

'^  Hutchinson  Papers:  Mass.  Historical  Coll.,  3d  series,  i,  108, 


\ 


2  8  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [154 

captured  and  brought  into  the  Colony  be  returned  to  their 
own  country,  "  Ginny,"  '      VvT'^  <*^  '^  ''  f 

But,  although  economic  laws  forbade  the  growth  of  slav- 
ery in  New  England,  her  merchants  and  ship-owners  found 
the  slave-trade  profitable ;  and  scores  of  their  vessels  were 
engaged  in  a  triangular  trade,  carrying  negroes  from  Africa 
to  the  West  Indies,  molasses  from  the  Indies  to  New  Eng- 
land, and  rum  to  Africa.  On  this  account  there  was  a 
limited  importation  of  slaves  into  this  section. 

In  1705  the  Court  took  cognizance  of  this  matter,  and  in 
a  measure  entitled,  "  An  act  for  the  better  preventing  of  a 
spurious  and  mixed  issue,"  inserted  a  clause  designed  to 
restrict  the  importation  of  slaves.^'  Masters  of  vessels 
were  required  to  pay  £/\.  duty  on  every  negro  imported. 
Whether  this  act  was  never  transmitted  to  England,  or 
whether  its  title  deceived  the  home  authorities,  is  a  matter 
of  doubt;  for  in  1609,  the  Lords  of  Trade  wrote  to  Gov. 
Dudley  concerning  the  tax  on  negroes,  reprimanding  him 
for  not  reporting  the  measure.3  In  1718  a  committee  ap- 
pointed by  the  Governor  and  Council  to  consider  some 
expedient  for  raising  the  value  of  the  bills  of  credit  of  the 
Province  reported,  "that  the  importation  of  white  servants 

^  Mass.  Records,  ii,  168. 
*  Acts  and  Resolves,  i,  578. 

' "  We  take  notice  that  you  say  the  Assembly  of  Mass.  have  by  an  Act  passed 
about  three  years  ago  laid  a  duty  of  £,i,  per  head  upon  negroes.  You  ought  to 
have  acquainted  us  with  the  year  the  said  Act  was  passed  and  given  us  the  title, 

for  we  can  find  none  such  among  those  we  have One  of  the  reasons  you  give 

why  negroes  are  not  desired  in  New  England  is  because  it  being  on  the  continent 
the  negroes  have  thereby  an  opportunity  of  running  away.  The  same  reason  will 
hold  in  Carolina,  Virginia  and  Maryland,  which  are  also  upon  the  Continent 
where  negroes  are  so  valuable."  In  reply  Gov.  Dudley  wrote :  "  Though  the 
reason  that  I  formerly  assigned  of  negroes  running  from  us  seems  to  be  equal 
with  Carolina  and  the  other  colonies,  the  force  of  it  continues,  because  they  will 
run  to  the  southward  for  warmer  weather,  as  the  cold  is  disagreeable  to  them." 
Acts  and  Resolves,  i,  5  78. 


155]  ^^  '^^^^  ^^^  ENGLAND  COLONIES  ■  29 

be  encouraged,  and  that  the  importation  of  black  servants  be 
discouraged."  ' 

The  economic  side  of  the  question  appealed  strongly  to 
them.  Among  the  first  arguments  used  against  slavery  was 
the  proposition  that  blacks,  coming  in  to  be  bought,  kept 
out  white  laborers  who  would  come  owning  themselves ; 
therefore,  the  true  capital  of  the  community  was  diminished 
by  a  bond  slave,  while  it  might  be  increased  by  a  free  ser- 
vant coming  in.  Other  laws,  tending  toward  the  total  pro- 
hibition of  the  importation  of  slaves,  were  enacted  during 
the  first  part  of  the  eighteenth  century;  and  these  together 
with  the  unfavorable  physical  environment  prevented  any 
considerable  development  of  the  institution  in  Massachusetts. 

Nine  years  after  the  union  of  the  two  Massachusetts 
colonies  ( 1700)  an  elaborate  law  regulating  immigration  was 
enacted.^  Masters  of  vessels  were  required  to  furnish  the 
receiver  of  imports  with  a  complete  list  of  passengers,  and 
also  an  account  of  their  circumstances,  as  far  as  could  be 
ascertained,  "  No  lame,  impotent,  or  infirm  persons,  incapa- 
ble of  maintaining  themselves,  should  be  received  without 
first  giving  security  that  the  town  in  which  they  settled 
would  not  be  charged  with  their  support."  In  default  of  this 
security  the  master  of  the  vessel  was  obliged  to  carry  such  U^ 
persons  back  to  their  former  1  homes.  This  law  of  1700 
made  further  provisions  for  the  listing  of  immigrants  by 
the  ships'  officers  only  where  there  was  a  port  of  entry;  and 
thus,  at  many  places  where  imposts  were  not  collected,  the 
people  complained  of  the  landing  of  objectionable  persons 
in  spite  of  their  protests.  Accordingly,  in  June,  1722,  the 
Act  was  amended  giving  the  Selectmen  of  any  town 
authority  to  receive  a  passenger  list  from  captains  of  vessels, 
and  also  to  demand  security  for  the  maintenance  of  paupers, 

'  Acis  and  Resolves,  i,  580.     Council  Records,  x,  259,  260. 
*  Acts  and  Resolves,  i,  452. 


3  o  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS  [  i^^ 

or  even  to  refuse  their  admission.'  This  measure  seems  not  to 
have  given  entire  satisfaction  ;  and  two  years  later,  it  being 
found  "  that  the  Act  of  1722  laid  difficulties  in  the  way  of 
trade,  when  the  intent  was  only  to  prevent  the  importation 
of  poor,  vicious  and  infirm  persons,"  another  law  was  passed. 
This  new  act  provided,  as  before,  for  the  presentation  of  a 
passenger  list;  but  all  immigrants  who  brought  with  them 
effects  to  the  value  of  ^50  (not  including  necessary  house- 
hold goods  and  wearing  apparel),  likewise  all  able-bodied 
husbandmen,  marines,  hand  carpenters,  laborers,  and  in- 
dented servants  provided  they  were  not  persons  of  vicious 
habits,  were  to  be  admitted  without  giving  security.'' 

The  last  act  of  this  nature  was  passed  in  1756,3  and  ex- 
pressly prohibited  the  landing  of  sick,  impotent  or  infirm 
persons  "  from  foreign  parts  or  other  colonies,"  unless  by 
the  consent  of  the  Selectmen  of  the  town,  and  after  the 
usual  security  from  the  master  of  the  vessel. 

In  his  very  interesting  sketch  of  the  American  Colonies, 
written  about  i76o,'*  the  English  traveler  Burnaby,  after  vis- 
iting the  Southern  and  Middle  Colonies,  notes  the  extreme 
exclusiveness  of  the  New  England  Colonies  in  their  attitude 
toward  European  immigrants,  and  refers  to  the  above  laws 
as  being  very  "impolitic;"  though  another  writer  of  the 
same  period  observes  "  that  the  New  England  Colonists  are 
prosperous  and  happy,  and  there  are  no  beggars  in  the 
country."  5 

We  have  thus  studied  the  laws  of  the  Massachusetts  Col- 
onies to  regulate  and  restrict  immigration ;  their  enactments 
to  foster  and  encourage  the  coming  of  new  settlers  remain 
to  be   presented.       As   has   already    been   intimated,    their 

^  Acts  and  Resolves,  ii,  244. 

^  Acts  and  Resolves,  ii,  337.  '  Ibid,,  iii,  982. 

*  Burnaby's  Trazels,  112. 

*  Major  Rogers,  Concise  Account  of  North  America,  65. 


) 


\ 


I57I  ^^  ^^^  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES  31 

efforts  in  that  direction  were  extremely  meagre.  With 
proper  inducements  they  might  have  secured  a  considerable 
portion  of  the  great  Protestant  emigration  of  the  eighteenth 
century ;  but  such  evidently  was  not  their  desire  ;  and  it  was 
with  no  jealous  eye  that  they  beheld  the  multitudes  pass 
them  by  and  pour  into  the  colonies  further  south. 

There  are  several  acts  found  in  the  Records  of  the  Colonial 
Assembly  which  may  be  interpreted  as  direct  or  indirect  en- 
couragement to  settlers,  such  as  the  granting  of  lands  and 
special  privileges ;  but  nothing  beyond  this,  until  the  peti- 
tion from  the  French  Refugees  in  1682.  In  response  to  this 
appeal  the  General  Court  set  aside  a  substantial  amount  of 
land  (the  present  town  of  Oxford.)  The  people  of  Boston, 
likewise,  generously  succored  the  little  company  of  Hugue- 
nots, until  they  felt  able  to  remove  to  their  lands.' 

About  1730,  Massachusetts  had  sufficiently  thawed  out 
from  what  a  recent  writer  has  termed  her  "glacial  period" 
to  pass  an  act  naturalizing  the  French  Protestants  then  re- 
siding in  the  colony,  even  going  so  far  as  to  announce  that 
the  first  "  lot"  had  conducted  themselves  so  "  seemly,"  that 
they  would  be  pleased  to  receive  others.^ 

In  1750  Massachusetts,  in  common  with  several  of  the 
colonies,  enacted  a  measure  regulating  the  importation  of 
German  immigrants. 3  This,  however,  was  practically  a  san- 
itary measure  and  possessed  nothing  in  the  way  of  encour- 
agement. There  are  no  evidences  that  any  appreciable 
number  of  Germans  made  their  home  in  Massachusetts. 

CONNECTICUT. 
The  settlements  of  Connecticut  and  New  Haven  were,  to  a 
certain  extent,  offshoots  from  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Col- 
ony, and  would  naturally  partake  of  the  characteristics  of 

'  Baird,  l^he  Huguenots  in  America,  i. 

^  Acts  and  Nesolves,  ii,  586.  ^  Ibid.,  iii,  982. 


3  2  C'<9Z  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  T  j  5  g 

the  parent  settlement.  Their  records  do  not  show  as  great 
an  activity  as  do  those  of  the  Bay  Colonies,  in  the  matter  of 
regulating  imnr.iigration ;  but  this  may  be  explained  by  the 
fact  that  many  of  their  settlers  landed  at  Boston,  and  also, 
that  to  the  Europeans  all  of  the  New  England  Colonies  (ex- 
cept Rhode  Island)  were  tainted  with  the  exclusiveness  and 
intolerance  of  Massachusetts.  Nor  was  this  judgment  far 
from  wrong,  for  the  Records  of  the  Connecticut  Colonies 
show  that  they  maintained  practically  the  same  attitude  to- 
ward newcomers  as  did  the  Massachusetts  Colonies. 

Although  possessed  of  the  choicest  land  in  New  England, 
and  desirous  of  building  prosperous  settlements,  they  never- 
theless refused  to  attain  this  end  by  jeopardizing  what  to 
them  seemed  the  most  important  purpose  of  their  enterprise, 
namely,  the  preservation  of  the  religious  and  moral  tone  of 
their  government.  Accordingly,  they  found  it  expedient  to 
regulate  carefully  the  admission  of  new  settlers,  for,  as  we 
have  already  seen  in  the  case  of  Massachusetts,  not  all  the 
immigrants  were,  as  a  modern  orator  has  said,  "  the  sifted 
grain  of  a  continent." 

The  truth  of  the  matter  was,  that  considerable  "chaff" 
had  gotten  mixed  in  with  the  wheat,  and  a  careful  winnow- 
ing was  necessary ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  many  worthy 
settlers  were  denied  admission  who  would  gladly  have 
availed  themselves  of  the  fertile  lands,  but  who  were  not  in 
entire  sympathy  with  the  moral  and  religious  system  of  gov- 
ernment which  the  founders  deemed  so  precious. 

The  New  Haven  Colony  was  the  first  to  take  action  on  the 
admission  of  settlers.  In  1644  the  Governor  and  Magistrates 
drew  up  a  form  of  oath  which  they  imposed  on  themselves  and 
all  the  inhabitants,  and  furthermore  ordered  that  no  settlers 
should  thereafter  be  admitted  until  they  had  subscribed  to 
the  oath.'     Again,  in    1657,  it  was  ordered   that  masters  of 

'  New  Haven  Colonial  Records,  i,  1 30. 


159] 


OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES 


vessels  should  be  forced  to  carry  away  all  passengers  whom 
the  towns  refused  to  receive.'  The  same  year  Quakers  were 
forbidden  to  come  into  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Colony.^ 
About  two  years  before  her  union  with  Connecticut  the 
Court  enacted  that  no  person  should  be  admitted  to  dwell 
within  the  jurisdiction,  without  first  securing  a  license  from 
the  Magistrates  of  the  Town  where  they  chose  to  settle.3 

Connecticut  appears  to  have  had  no  serious  trouble,  until 
1660,  when  an  Act  was  passed,  ordering  that  none  should 
be  received  as  inhabitants  but  such  as  were  known  to  be  of 
an  "  honest  conversation,"  and  accepted  by  a  major  part  of 
the  town.-*  Seven  years  later  there  was  considerable  com- 
plaint manifested,  owing  to  the  fact  "  that  divers  persons  had 
thrust  themselves  into  several  of  the  towns  much  to  the  dis- 
turbance and  distrust  of  the  better  portion  of  the  citizens," 
and  it  was  enacted  that  such  persons  should  forfeit  20  s.  per 
week  to  the  Town  Treasurer,  after  being  warned  by  the  Se- 
lectmen to  depart,  and,  in  default  of  payn^ent  should  be 
placed  in  the  stocks  for  one  hour,  or  be  corporally  pun- 
ished.s  This  measure  with  some  unimportant  modifications 
was  re-enacted  in  1682  and  again  in  1707.^ 

The  foreign  immigration  into  the  Connecticut  valley  was 
very  meagre.  In  r68o,  the  Secretary  of  State  for  England 
sent  to  the  colonies  a  table  of  inquiries,  among  which  was  a 
question  relating  to  the  increase  of  population,  as  follows : 
"  What  number  of  English,  Scotch  and  Irish  foreigners  have, 
during  the  past  seven  years,  or  during  any  other  space  of 
time,  come  yearly  to  plant  and  inhabit  within  your  corpora- 
tion ;  and  also  what  blacks  and  slaves  have  been  brought 
in  within  the  said  time,  and  at  what  rates?"     To  this  query 

^New  Haven  Colonial  Records,  217. 
="  Ibid.,  ii,  215.  *  Ibid.,  ii,  610. 

*Conn.  Colonial  Records,  i,  351.  ^Ibid.,  ii,  66. 

^ Ibid.,  iii,  III;   v,  21. 


34  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  Tl  ON  LA  WS  [  j  60 

the  Connecticut  authorities  responded  "for  English,  Scotch 
and  Irish,  there  are  so  few  come  in  that  we  cannot  give  a 
certain  account :  some  years  come  none  ;  sometimes  a  family 
or  two  in  a  year.  As  for  blacks,  there  come  sometimes  three 
or  four  in  a  year  from  Barbadoes,  and  they  are  sold  usually 
at  the  rate  of  22;^  apiece."  ' 

Connecticut  of  all  the  English  colonies  in  America,  prob- 
ably received  the  smallest  number  of  immigrants  from 
Europe.  Her  population  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revo- 
lution was  practically  of  pure  English  descent,  and  had  mul- 
I  tipHed  by  natural  increase  from  the  few  thousands  who  made 
their  way  thither  during  the  Puritan  immigration.^ 

RHODE   ISLAND. 

Had  Roger  Williams  and  his  associates  been  possessed  of 
a  tract  of  land  as  large  and  fertile  as  that  granted  to  William 
Penn,  it  is  very  probable  that  Rhode  Island  would  have 
become  one  of  the  most  populous  of  the  colonies.  Estab- 
lished, as  it  was,  on  the  broad  basis  of  perfect  religious 
freedom,  and  with  but  few  restraints  on  civil  liberty,  it 
apparently  lacked  nothing  but  wider  boundaries  to  have 
proved  one  of  the  great  Meccas  for  European  immigration 
during  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries.  The 
records  of  the  colony  contain  almost  nothing  in  the  way  of 
legislation  obviously  intended  to  regulate  immigration.  The 
•great  variety  of  nationalties  and  religious  sects  which  existed 
there,   and    which    always    struck    the    attention   of    foreign 

'  Conn.  Colony  Records,  iii,  298. 

''  Nearly  one  hundred  years  after  the  questions  above  referred  to,  the  Secretary 
of  Conn.,  in  1774,  replied  to  a  similar  list  sent  out  from  the  Heme  Government  as 
follows:  "The  inhabitants  have  increased  52,266  in  ten  years,  .  .  .  which  increase 
we  attribute  to  industrious  temperate  life  and  early  marriages.  And  it  would 
probably  have  been  greater  had  it  not  been  for  losses  sustained  during  the  war, 
and  frequent  and  numerous  emigrations  from  hence  to  his  Majesties  newly  con- 
quered or  evacuated  countries  in  America."     Conn.  Col.  Records,  iii,  299. 


l6i]  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES  35 

travellers  as  contrasting  with  most  of  the  other  provinces, 
are  evidence  that  the  authorities  gave  little  or  no  attention 
to  the  admission  of  settlers.  The  one  exception  to  this 
general  statement  is  found  in  the  law  of  1700'  which  im- 
posed a  bond  of  ;^50  on  masters  of  vessels  bringing  in 
foreigners  from  places  outside  of  '*  Great  Britain,  Ireland, 
Jersey  and  Guernsey,"  as  a  guarantee  that  the  passengers 
whom  they  landed  would  not  prove  a  burden  to  the  colony. 

The  much-disputed  clause  in  the  statute  of  1663,  denying 
the  privileges  of  freemen  to  Roman  Catholics,  may  be  con- 
strued as  an  attempt  to  restrict  the  coming  of  that  sect;  but 
even  if  it  were  enacted  and  enforced  as  a  law  of  the  colony, 
compared  to  the  laws  against  Roman  Catholics  in  most  of 
the  other  colonies  it  was  mild  indeed,  and  hardly  served  as 
a  formidable  barrier  to  any  of  that  faith  who  might  be  desir- 
ous of  settling  there.* 

Rhode  Island,  as  did  the  other  New  England  Colonies, 
attempted  to  prohibit  the  importation  of  slaves,  and  in  1652 
passed  an  act  looking  in  that  direction ;  =  but  as  several  of 
her  merchants  had  vessels  engaged  in  the  trade  there  were 
as  many  negroes  imported  as  the  unfavorable  economic 
conditions  would  allow. 

SUMMARY. 
Having  studied  with  some  detail  the  attitude  of  the  New 

'  Colonial  Laws  of  K.  I.,  1 663-1767.     This  was  re-enacted  in  1729. 

''■  One,  Major  Rogers,  in  his  Concise  Account  of  North  America,  written  in  1765 
speaks  of  Rhode  Island  as  follows :  "  There  are  in  this  colony  men  of  almost  every 
religious  persuasion  in  the  world.  The  greatest  number  are  Quakers,  and  many 
have  no  religion  at  all,  at  least  profess  none.  On  which  account  no  questions  are 
here  asked,  every  man  being  left  to  think  and  act  for  himself,  of  which  neither  the 
laws  nor  his  neighbors  take  cognizance.  So  greatly  is  their  liberty  degenerated 
into  licentiousness  that  this  province  is  also  infested  with  a  rascally  set  of  Jews 
who  fail  not  to  take  advantage  here  given  to  men  of  all  professions  and  religions." 
Major  Rogers,  Concise  Account  of  N.  A.,  58,  59. 

•  R.  I.  Colonial  Records,  i,  243. 


36  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  \\62 

England  settlements  toward  European  immigration,'  let  us 
before  passing  to  the  other  colonies  take  a  summary  view  of 
the  field  thus  far  covered.  We  have  seen  that  among  the 
motives  of  the  founders  of  these  commonwealths  the  reli- 
j^'^^ious  elein£iilL_4iredominated.  -  The  early  settlers  were 
almost  wholly  from  the  ranks  of  the  Puritan  party  in  Eng- 
land, who  under  pressure  of  actual  or  threatened  persecution 
had  left  their  native  country  and  established  themselves  in 
that  part  of  America.  The  leaders  of  the  movement,  those 
who  directed  its  early  course,  and  whose  influence  for  a  cen- 
/  tury  after  their  death  shaped  the  policy  of  the  colonies,  had 
j  well-defined  ideas  of  the  aim  and  purpose  of  their  enterprise. 
T'o  realize  these  ends  it  seemed  to  them  necessary  to  ascer- 
tain carefully  the  character  of  the  prospective  settlers  and  to 
exclude  those  whom  they,  for  any  reason,  deemed  unfit  to 
become  associates  in  their  project.  While  anxiously  atten- 
tive to  the  worldly  prosperity  of  their  colonies,  yet  the 
religious  and  moral  character  seeming  to  them  most  im- 
portant, they  naturally  preferred  orthodoxy  of  faith  to 
augmentation  of  numbers.  Accordingly  we  find  their 
early  records  full  of  laws  against  the  admission  of  all  persons 
differing  from  them  in  matters  of  faith  and  worship,  which 
practically  amount  to  an  exclusion  ntit  only  of  all  other 
nationalties,  but  of  many  persons  from  Great  Britain  as  well. 
Having  made  their  settlements  at  times  sufificiently  late  to 
profit  by  the  disastrous  failure  of  former  attempts,  espe- 
cially in  those  cases  where  the  colonists  were  indigent  or 
immoral  and  vicious,  they  wisely  refused  to  receive  any  of 
those  classes.  We  cannot  help  but  feel,  however,  that  they 
were  too  careful  on  the  point  of  indigency  during  the  first 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century,  when  thousands  of  poor  but 
thrifty  settlers  from  the  continent  were  seeking  homes  in  the 

'  There  is  practically  nothing  in  the  records  of  New  Hampshire  bearing  on  the 
subject  of  immigration. 


(^ 


163]  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COLONIES  ^pr 

colonies — men  who  demonstrated  that  they  needed  but  the 
opportunity  in  order  to  bring  forth  abundant  wealth  from 
the  resources  of  the  country;  but  who,  when  they  emigrated, 
could  hardly  have  passed  the  requirements  of  admission  in 
the  New  England  Colonies.  But  the  specific  laws  we  have 
been  considering  were,  perhaps,  less  effective  as  barriers  to 
foreign  immigration  than  the  rigor  and  harshness  of  Puritan 
legislation  along  other  lines.  Puritanism  in  New  England  ^ 
was  too  austere,  too  painfully  conscientious  and  moral  to 
attract  many  settlers ;  while  her  sumptuary  laws  and  barbar- 
ous punishments  were  repelling  even  to  the  persecuted 
peasant  of  Continental  Europe. 

Assuming  that  their  policy  and  its  results  were  for  the  best, 
it  was  fortunate  that  they  chose  to  settle  in  New  England, 
where  the  scanty  soil  and  rigorous  climate  aided  them  in 
their  efforts  toward  exclusion.  Indeed,  it  seems  hardly  pos- 
sible that  their  experiment  could  have  succeeded  at  all  fur- 
ther south,  where  inexhaustible  acres  of  fertile  land  and  a 
mild  climate  invited  the  industrious  settler  to  generous  re- 
wards. Had  Winthrop  and  his  associates  settled  in  Penn- 
sylvania or  further  south,  it  is  highly  improbable  that  a 
scriptural  code  or  an  occasional  banishment  or  hanging 
would  have  deterred  the  hardy  Germans,  Scotch  and  Irish 
from  settling  on  their  unappropriated  lands,  and  the  Puritan 
commonwealth  would  probably  have  died  with  its  founders. 


CHAPTER  V 

IMMIGRATION  LAWS  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES 

Lying  between  the  Puritan  Commonwealths  of  New  Eng- 
land and  the  Provinces  of  the  South  was  the  group  of  Middle 
Colonies,  embracing  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey 
and  Delaware.  Possessing  ample  territory  of  great  fertility, 
magnificent  harbors  and  rivers,  and  maintaining  a  generous 
policy  in  religious  and  political  affairs,  these  colonies  proved 
extremelyinviting  to_the  immigrants  from  Europe.  Especi- 
ally during  the  Protestant  migration  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury new  settlers  liberally  flocked  to  this  section,  attracted 
thither  by  the  favorable  conditions  in  the  granting  of  land, 
and  by  the  liberal  treatment  accorded  to  them  in  other  ways. 

At  the  close  of  the  colonial  period  this  group  possessed 
the  most  mixed  population  of  any  of  the  colonies.  Besides 
Englishmen,  there  were  representatives  from  almost  every 
country  in  Europe :  Scotch,  Highlanders  and  Lowlanders, 
Scotch- Irish,  French  Huguenots,  Germans  from  various  parts 
of  the  Empire,  Dutch,  Swedes,  Finns  and  a  few  Jews.  Quite 
naturally,  amid  such  a  variety  of  nationalities,  there  existed 
a  diversity  of  religious  persuasions  which  shows  clearly  the 
tolerant  spirit  that  must  have  existed  in  those  colonies.' 

NEW   YORK. 

New  York,  the  most  northern  of  the  group,  was  originally 
settled  by  the  Dutch,  who  established  settlements  along  the 

* "  Toleration  made  Pennsylvania  a  religious  museum.  In  it,  besides  the 
Quakers,  were  Anglicans,  Lutherans,  Scotch  Presbyterians,  Palatines,  Bunkers, 
Pietists,  and  Roman  Catholics,  though  the  latter,  there  as  elsewhere,  were  under 
a  ban  of  suspicion." 

38  [164 


ige]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  39 

Hudson  river  early  in  the  seventeenth  century.  For  the  forty 
or  more  years,  during  which  they  controlled  the  Colony,  no 
plans  seem  to  have  been  attempted  to  make  it  anything 
more  than  an  exclusively  Dutch  settlement.  To  encourage 
the  peopling  of  the  country,  an  elaborate  system  of  patroon- 
ships  was  adopted  by  the  Company  owning  the  territory. 
Persons  transporting  a  certain  number  of  settlers  were  in- 
vested with  vast  grants  of  land  over  which  they  exercised 
seignorial  sway. 

In  1664,  England  had  put  a  stop  to  the  constant  strife 
which  had  been  going  on  between  her  colonies  and  New 
Netherlands  by  forcibly  assuming  the  government  of  the  lat- 
ter colony  and  granting  the  territory  to  the  Duke  of  York, 
afterwards  James  I.  The  Dutch  inhabitants  were  natural- 
ized, the  name  of  their  settlement  changed  in  honor  of  its 
proprietor,  and  New  York  soon  became  one  of  the  Royal' 
Provinces.  During  the  remainder  of  the  17th  century  immi- 
gration to  this  colony  was  comparatively  slight.  No  especial 
efiforts  seem  to  have  been  put  forth,  to  that  end,  either  by 
the  home  government  or  by  the  colonial  authorities.'  It  is 
difificult  to  ascertain  whether  or  not  Catholics  were  excluded 
from  the  Colony  during  these  years.  In  1700  Governor 
Bellamont  mentioned  the  existence  of  a  law  against  Jesuits 

^  A  glimpse  of  the  situation,  about  1687,  is  afforded  by  Governor  Dongan's  re- 
port to  the  Commissioners  of  Plantations,  In  answer  to  their  inquirers  concern- 
ing the  number  and  character  of  new  settlers,  he  replied  :  "  I  believe  for  these 
seven  years  last  past  there  has  not  come  into  this  province  twenty  English,  Scotch 
or  Irish  families.  But,  on  the  contrary,  on  Long  Island  the  people  increase  so 
fast  that  they  complain  for  want  of  land,  and  many  remove  from  thence  into  the 
neighboring  province.  But  of  French  there  have  been,  since  my  coming  here, 
several  families,  both  from  St.  Christophers  and  England,  and  a  great  many  more 
are  expected.  (Probably  French  Huguenots.)  Also  from  Holland  are  come 
several  Dutch  families,  which  is  another  great  argument  for  the  necessity  of  add- 
ing to  this  Government  the  neighboring  English  colonies,  that  a  more  equal  bal- 
ance may  be  kept  between  his  Majesties  natural-born  subjects  and  foreigners, 
which  latter  are  the  most  prevailing  part  of  this  Gov't."  Documentary  History 
of  N.  v.,  i,  103. 


i^- 


40  <^0L ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [ 1 65 

and  Catholics,  and  offered  a  reward  to  the  Indians  for  the 
capture  and  delivery  of  any  of  these  persons  to  the  Governor 
at  Albany.'  The  temper  of  the  people  is  likewise  shown  in 
an  address  of  the  Assembly  to  the  Governor  in  1698,  in 
which  they  say,  "  We  hope  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a  lasting 
happiness  to  this  province  by  uniting  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple, supporting  the  dignity  of  the  government,  and  estab- 
lishing such  a  constitution  of  laws  as  may  forever  exclude 
Popery  and  Slavery.^" 

An  interesting  and  instructive  experiment  in  immigration 
conducted  by  the  joint  efforts  of  the  home  government  and 
colonial  authorities  of  New  York  was  begun  in  1709.  As 
the  champion  of  Protestantism,  England  had  extended  a 
general  invitation  to  the  persecuted  Protestants  of  the  conti- 
nent to  seek  homes  in  her  colonies,  and  offered  to  assist 
those  who  were  too  poor  to  pay  their  own  way.  In  1708 
j*^  several  thousand  Germans,  on  special  invitation  from  the 
English  Government,^  made  their  way  to  London,  from 
which  point  they  were  sent  to  various  parts  of  the  empire. 
Many  of  these  were  in  destitute  circumstances,  and  wholly 
dependent  upon  the  charity  of  the  people  of  that  city.^ 

In  1709  the  Board  of  Trade  for  England,  to  whom  was 
referred  the  matter  of  devising  ways  and  means  for  trans- 
porting the  exiles,  presented  a  scheme  for  their  removal.^ 

*  New  York  Colonial  Manuscript,  iv,  736. 
'  New  York  Colonial  Laws,  i,  86. 

*  "  There  were  books  and  papers  dispersed  in  the  Palatinate  ...  to  encourage 
the  Palatines  to  come  to  England,  in  order  to  be  sent  to  Her  Majesty's  Colonies 
in  America."     yournals  of  the  House  of  Commons,  xvi,  467. 

* "  Under  various  auspices  a  large  part  were  transported  to  the  colonies,  several 
hundred  were  transferred  to  Ireland,  where  their  descendants  still  reside;  many 
of  them  after  suffering  great  privation  returned  to  their  former  homes,  and  thous- 
ands died  for  want  of  sustenance,  medical  attention,  and  from  other  causes." 
Rupp's  Collections,  5. 

*  Documents  relating  to  the  Colonial  LListory  of  N.  V.,  v,  87. 


1 6;]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  4 1 

The  report  recommended  that  they  be  settled  in  the  royal 
province  of  New  York  ;  that  they  be  suppHed  with  necessary 
tools ;  have  land  granted  to  them,  and  be  not  allowed  to  en- 
gage in  manufactures  prejudicial  to  those  of  England. 

After  some  correspondence  with  the  colonial  authorities, 
the  scheme  resolved  itself  into  the  following  specific  plans : 
That  3,000  of  the  Palatines  were  to  be  transported  to  the 
colony,  settled  on  the  Hudson  and  Mohawk  Rivers,  and  em- 
ployed in  making  tar  and  rosin  for  the  use  of  the  British 
Navy.  Governor  Hunter  was  instructed  to  seat  them  all 
either  in  a  body  or  in  different  settlements,  and  to  encourage 
them  to  work  more  or  less  in  partnership,  i.  e.,  three  or  four 
families  in  common.  And,  finally,  they  were  to  be  natural- 
ized and  enjoy  all  the  privileges  and  advantages  of  the  other 
inhabitants  of  the  colony.'  Ten  vessels,  carrying  upwards 
of  three  thousand  Germans,  left  England  on  the  25th  day 
of  December,  1709,  and  after  a  stormy  voyage  of  several 
months  arrived  at  New  York.  Many  died  on  the  passage 
or  soon  after  landing.  The  entire  party  were  quartered  in 
tents  on  Governor's  Island,  where  they  remained  for  the  en- 
tire summer,  being  supplied  with  food  at  public  expense. 
Many  of  them  hired  out  as  servants,  and  the  Governor  ap- 
prenticed the  orphans  to  the  citizens  of  New  York  and  New 
Jersey. 

In  the  fall  of  1710  an  attempt  was  made  to  carry  out  the 
instructions  of  the  Board  of  Trade,  but  with  disastrous 
results.  Fourteen  hundred  of  the  new  arrivals  were  settled 
at  Livingston  Manor  on  the  Hudson  river  and  set  to  making 
tar ;  but  they  soon  grew  dissatisfied  with  their  condition, 
seeing  that  their  labors  were  resulting  in  nothing  permanent 
either  for  themselves  or  their  children.  "We  came  to 
America  to  establish  our  families,  to  secure  lands  for  our 
children  on  which  they  may  be  able  to  support  themselves 

'  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  iii,  382. 


42  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  \\tZ 

after  we  die."  '  Thus  they  addressed  the  authorities.  They 
were  promised  lands,  but  the  governor  seemed  more  anxious 
to  secure  enough  tar  to  repay  the  home  government  for  its 
loan  than  to  settle  the  Germans  on  lands  of  their  own,  and 
even  resorted  to  violent  measures  to  secure  obedience  to  his 
demands.  In  the  dead  of  winter  one  hundred  and  fifty 
families  left  Livingston  Manor  to  settle  upon  lands  in 
Schoharie  Valley,  sixty  miles  distant.  "  They  had  no  open 
road,  no  horses  to  carry  or  haul  their  luggage,  and  were 
compelled  to  tug  this  themselves  on  rudely  constructed 
sleds."  ""  Here  they  remained  about  ten  years,  when  owing 
to  some  defect  in  their  titles  they  were  deprived  of  both 
lands  and  improvements,  and  induced  by  the  generous  offers 
of  the  Pennsylvania  authorities,  they  removed  to  that 
Province.  Thus  there  was  added  another  to  the  long  list  of 
failures  on  part  of  governments  and  individuals  to  establish 
settlements  in  America  on  a  community  basis.  The  long 
line  of  disasters,  from  Raleigh's  first  attempts  to  Oglethorpe's 
philanthropic  scheme  in  Georgia,  fully  demonstrated  that  it 
was  practically  impossible  to  devise  plans  in  Europe  for  the 
successful  management  of  a  settlement  in  America. 

Whatever  defects  the  "  laissez-faire  "  doctrine  may  have 
had  in  older  communities,  it  was  proved  time  after  time  to 
be  the  best  theory  for  the  colonists  of  the  new  world.  VVith 
boundless  opportunities  for  individual  effort,  it  was  clearly 
going  against  nature  for  governments  or  companies  to 
attempt  to  restrain  or  direct  the  enterprise  of  the  colonists. 
Wherever  the  government  encouraged  individual  effort  by 
generous  grants  of  land  and  freedom  from  obnoxious 
restraints,  there  was  success  ;  but  in  every  case  where  the 
settlers  were  restricted  or  compelled  to  labor  in  common  or 
along  a  given  plan,  there  resulted  failure.     Even  when  the 

^  Documentary  History  of  New  York,  iii,  394. 
*  Rupp's  Collection  0/20,000  Names,  i,  270. 


l^gl  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  43 

disastrous  outcome  of  their  experiment  was  apparent,  the 
colonial  authorities  of  New  York  did  not  make  the  best  of 
the  situation,  and,  by  liberal  grants  of  land  and  hospitable 
treatment,  aid  the  German  immigrants  to  establish  them- 
selves in  the  province;  on  the  contrary,  they  grudgingly 
doled  out  a  mere  scrap  from  their  vast  domain,  and  then 
refused  to  protect  the  settlers  in  their  rights  after  they  had 
spent  years  of  labor  on  their  lands.  The  Germans  did  not 
soon  forget  their  inhospitable  treatment,  and  later  in  the 
century  when  their  countrymen  were  emigrating  by  the 
thousands,  few  of  them  could  be  induced  to  settle  in  New 
York.'  Even  when  they  were  landed  at  the  port  of  that 
province  they  soon  made  their  way  into  Pennsylvania  or  re- 
shipped  for  the  southern  colonies. 

In  1 718  the  Assembly  made  a  feeble  effort  to  encourage 
immigration  by  passing  an  act  naturalizing  all  foreigners 
then  residing  in  the  colony."* 

Several  years  later  the  authorities  seemed  to  awaken  to 
the  situation;  for  we  find  the  Governor  (Crosby)  admon- 
ishing the  Assembly  for  their  carelessness  and    neglect   in 

'  "  Though,"  says  Peter  Kahn  (an  eminent  Swedish  naturalist  and  philosopher 
who  traveled  in  America,  1748-51),  "  the  province  of  New  York  has  been  in- 
habited by  Europeans  much  longer  than  Pennsylvania,  yet  it  is  not,  by  far,  so 
populous  as  that  colony.  This  cannot  be  ascribed  to  any  particular  discourage- 
ment arising  from  the  nature  of  the  soil,  for  that  is  good,  but  from  a  very  different 
reason.  (He  then  proceeds  to  relate  the  story  of  the  Palatines  sent  over  to  New 
York,  and  their  subsequent  ill-treatment  by  the  authorities  of  the  colony,  and 
their  later  removal  to  Pennsylvania.)  They  were  exceedingly  well  received  in 
Pennsylvania,  got  a  considerable  tract  of  land,  and  were  indulged  in  great  privi- 
leges, which  were  given  them  forever.  Not  satisfied  with  being  themselves  re- 
moved from  New  York,  they  wrote  to  their  relations  and  friends  in  Europe  and 
advised  them,  if  ever  they  intended  to  emigrate  to  America,  not  to  go  to  New 
York,  where  the  Gov't  had  shown  itself  so  inequitable.  This  advice  had  such  in- 
fluence that  the  Germans  who  afterwards  went  in  great  numbers  to  North  Amer- 
ica constantly  avoided  New  York."  See  Rupp's  Collection  0/20,000  names,  i,  270. 

'  Documents  relating  to  Col.  Hist,  of  N.  Y.,  v,  496. 


44  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [  1 7  O 

the  matter  of  encouraging  new  settlers."  But  the  subsequent 
records  do  not  show  that  the  province  received  any  consid- 
erable proportion  of  the  great  emigration  from  Europe 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century. 

PENNSYLVANIA. 

The  territory  of  Pennsylvania  was  primarily  purchased  and 
founded  as  a  safe  retreat  for  the  persecuted  Quakers,  but 
not  for  them  exclusively.  Liberty  of  conscience  was  granted 
to  all  who  professed  the  Christian  religion ;  and  the  most 
favorable  terms,  as  regards  lands  and  government,  were 
offered  to  all  who  would  settle  in  the  Province.  From  a  re- 
port of  the  Council  Proceedings,  in  1683,  it  appears  that  a 
resolution  was  introduced  to  the  effect  that  no  felons  should 
be  brought  into  the  Colony  ;="  but  no  action  seems  to  have 
been  taken  on  this  proposition.  A  period  of  almost  forty  years 
passed,  during  which  no  measures  against  immigration  were 
passed ;  and,  under  the  freedom  of  religious  worship  and 
favorable  guarantees  of  civil  liberty,  the  Colony  attracted 
more  than  its  share  of  settlers. 

In  the  year  1722,  the  question  of  prohibiting  the  impor- 
tation of  felons  again  appears,  and  the  Records  of  the  As- 
sembly for  that  year  contain  "An  act  for  imposing  a  duty  on 
persons  convicted  of  heinous  crimes  and  imported  into  this 
province  as  servants  or  otherwise."^ 

'"I  see  with  concern  that  whilst  the  neighboring  provinces  are  filled  with 
honest,  useful  and  laborious  white  people;  the  truest  riches  and  surest  strength 
of  a  country;  this  Province  seems  regardless  of  the  vast  advantage  which  such 
acquisition  might  bring  to  them,  and  of  the  disadvantages  that  attend  to  the  too 
great  importation  of  negroes  and  convicts.  These  things  are  worthy  of  your  con- 
sideration, and  require  your  speedy  attention,  as  the  greatest  good  is  to  be 
expected  from  the  one  and  the  greatest  evil  from  the  other."  Journal  of  Geti'l 
Assetnbly  of  N.  Y.,  i,  654. 

'  Colonial  Records  of  Penn''a,  i,  72. 

'  Colonial  Records,  iii,  163. 


j^i]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  45 

Five  years  before  (1717),  in  the  4th  year  of  George  I., 
Parliament  had  passed  an  act  for  the  transportation  of  felons 
into  the  colonies.'  It  recited  that  their  laws  against  rob- 
bery, larcen3%  ^/<;.,  had  not  proved  effectual;  and,  "realiz- 
ing "  that  there  was  a  great  want  of  servants  in  the  colonies, 
ParHament  generously  decided  to  part  with  these  classes  for 
the  benefit  of  the  settlers  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
colonists,  however,  failed  to  perceive  the  kindly  intent  of 
this  action,  as  their  legislative  records  for  the  next  half  cen- 
tury bear  witness.  In  February,  1730,  the  Act  of  1722  was 
repealed,  and  a  more  complete  and  specific  measure  was 
substituted.^ 

The  practice  in  our  times  of  evading  the  anti-Chinese  law 
by  landing  the  Chinamen  at  other  than  American  ports,  and 
afterward  transporting  them  across  the  borders,  is  evidently 
not  of  modern  invention ;  for  one  clause  of  the  above  act 
provided  a  heavy  penalty  on  persons  who  landed  convicts 
outside  the  colony,  and  afterward  "  stealthily  removed,"  them 
into  the  jurisdiction  of  Pennsylvania. 

The  will  left  by  Penn  is  proof  that  the  philanthropic 
founder  of  Pennsylvania  owned  slaves ;  and,  while  the  peo- 
ple of  that  state  refer  with  pride  to  the  strong  denunciation 
of  the  slave  system  by  the  early  Mennonites  and  Quakers, 
yet  it  is  very  probable  that  economic  conditions  rather  than 
moral  standards  were  the  prime  reasons  for  its  meagre  de- 

'  Parliamentary  Statutes,  4th  Geo.  I.,  c.  11. 

'  A  duty  of  ;^5  was  imposed  on  each  convict  imported,  and  the  masters  of  ves- 
sels required  to  give  a  bond  for  their  good  behavior  for  one  year.  Dallas'  Laws, 
i,  250. 

Twelve  years  later  the  law  was  re-enacted  with  some  amendments,  but  on  pre- 
sentation to  the  King  and  Pri\'y  Council  was  disallowed  on  the  ground  that  it 
conflicted  with  the  Act  of  Parliament  regarding  the  importation  of  convicts. 
This  action  of  the  Privy  Council  seems  to  have  caused  considerable  feeling  in 
the  colony;  a  vigorous  correspondence  was  carried  on  between  the  colonial 
authorities  and  the  Proprietor  in  England,  through  whose  influence  the  matter 
was  amicably  settled.     See  Penti'a.  Col.  Records,  v,  499. 


46  COLOXIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  {^72. 

velopment  in  that  province.  Laws  placing  a  duty  on  the 
importation  of  negroes  were  passed  in  1705  and  17 10,  and 
the  following  year  absolute  prohibition  was  attempted,  but 
the  measure  was  disallowed  by  the  Privy  Council.  From 
that  time  until  the  further  importation  of  negroes  was  pro- 
hibited, a  uniform  duty  of  ^20  per  head  was  levied  on  all 
slaves  imported  into  the  colony.' 

The  German  immigration  into  Pennsylvania  during  the 
first  half  of  the  i8th  century  is  by  far  the  most  interesting 
and  instructive  phase  of  our  subject,  involving,  as  it  does, 
the  most  extensive  immigration  of  colonial  times,  and  pre- 
senting many  of  the  phenomena  which  our  own  age  has  wit- 
nessed, as  the  millions  of  Europeans  have  flocked  to  these 
shores.  Many  investigators  have  attempted  to  discover  the 
cause  of  this  unprecedented  immigration  into  Pennsylvania, 
and  with  the  uniform  result  that  no  one  cause  has  been  found 
adequate  to  explain  all  the  phenomena.  There  were  many 
causes,  equally  important,  some  operative  in  Europe  and 
others  in  the  colony.  Penn's  travels  in  Holland  and  Ger- 
N  many  as  a  Quaker  missionary ;  the  broad  and  liberal  invita- 
0  tion  which  he  extended  to  all  Europe ;  the  generous  terms 
,v^V  on  which  lands  were  offered,  together  with  religious  and 
political  guarantees,  were  among  some  of  the  attractions ; " 
while  the  unsettled  conditions  in  Europe,  especially  the  wars 
of  Louis  XIV.,  were  the  repellent  forces  on  the  other  side. 

There  was  a  small  party  of  Germans  among  the  first 
settlers  sent  over  by  Penn ;  but  during  the  first  twenty  years 
of  the  existence  of  the  colony  only  a  few  hundred  of  that 
nationality  arrived.  Early  in  the  i8th  century,  however,  the 
ravages  and  desolations  by  the  troops  of  Louis  XIV.  in  the 
Protestant  states  of  Germany  drove  thousands  from  their 
homes ;  and  from  that  time  until  the  middle  of  the  century 
a  constant  stream  of  German   immigrants  poured  into  the 

1  Dallas'  Laws,  i,  87.     Watson's  Annals,  ii,  163. 


^ 


J 


173]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  ^y 

Quaker  province.  The  hospitable  treatment  accorded  to 
the  first  settlers  induced  them  to  encourage  their  friends  to 
immigrate  to  Penn's  colony,  and,  once  started  in  that  direc- 
tion, the  stream  continued  to  flow  with  increasing  volume. 
Penn  had  agents  in  the  Palatinate  country  for  the  purpose 
of  inducing  the  people  to  emigrate;  and  there  are  instances 
of  communities,  already  settled  in  the  province,  sending  over 
one  of  their  number  to  induce  their  friends  to  emigrate  and 
share  in  their  prosperity. 

We  have  already  noted  the  interest  which  the  home 
government  under  Queen  Anne  had  taken  in  the  peopling 
of  her  colonies  by  ofifering  to  aid  and  protect  all  Protestants 
who  might  settle  there.  This  policy  was  continued  under 
George  I.,  and  during  the  early  years  of  his  reign,  his 
Majesty  dispatched  an  agent  to  the  Palatinate  with  a  special 
invitation  for  the  Mennonites  who  were  proposing  to  leave 
their  native  land  to  settle  in  Pennsylvania  west  of  the 
Allegheny  mountains.'  No  systematic  attempt  on  the  part  of 
the  government  to  carry  out  the  above  plans  seems  to  have 
been  made;  but  undoubtedly  it  stimulated  emigration  and 
proved  a  great  advertisement  for  Pennsylvania,  as  it  was 
about  this  time  that  the  arrivals  of  German  settlers  became 
so  numerous  as  to  attract  the  notice  of  the  colonial  au- 
thorities. 

'  This  invitation  is  of  interest  to  the  historian  as  a  typical  emigration  document 
of  the  iSth  century.  After  mentioning  the  persecutions  to  which  these  people 
were  subjected,  it  continues,  "  the  King  offers  to  them  for  a  habitation  the  coun- 
try west  of  thtf  Allegheny  Mountains,  usually  considered  a  part  of  Pennsylvania, 
but  not  yet  belonging  to  it.  Each  family  shall  have  fifty  acres  of  land  in  fee 
simple,  and  for  the  first  ten  years  the  use,  without  charge,  of  as  much  as  they  shall 
want,  subject  only  to  the  stipulation  that  after  that  time  the  yearly  rent  of  one 
hundred  acres  shall  be  two  shillings.  There  is  land  enough  for  100,000  families, 
and  they  shall  have  permission  to  live  there,  not  as  foreigners,  but  on  their  engage- 
ment, under  oath,  to  be  true  and  ( bedient  to  the  King,  and  to  have  the  same 
rights  as  his  natural-born  subjects."  Then  follows  a  highly  drawn  picture  of  the 
country  and  its  resources.     I^enn'a.  Magazine  of  History,  ii,  126. 


48  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  \^1A 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Governor  and  Council,  September 
17th,  1 717,  the  Governor  (Keith)  informed  the  Board  "that 
great  numbers  of  foreigners  from  Germany,  strangers  to  our 
language  and  constitution  were  lately  imported  into  the 
Province  and  daily  dispersed  themselves  without  producing 
any  certificates  from  whence  they  came  or  what  they  were." 
The  Governor  further  observed  that  they  made  no  applica- 
tion to  himself  or  any  of  the  magistrates,  and  that  such 
"  practices  might  be  dangerous  since  by  the  same  method 
any  number  of  foreigners  from  any  nation  whatever,  enemies 
as  well  as  friettds  might  throw  themselves  upon  the  present 
settlers."  After  due  consideration  by  the  Council  it  was 
ordered  that  the  masters  of  vessels  who  had  "  imported  "  the 
immigrants  should  be  summoned  to  appear  and  render  an 
account  of  the  number  and  character  of  their  passengers ; 
and  that  those  already  landed  should  take  an  oath  of 
allegiance  to  his  Majesty  and  the  government.  The  naval 
officer  of  the  port  was  likewise  instructed  to  secure  from 
masters  of  vessels  an  exact  list  of  all  their  passengers.' 

Thousands  now  began  to  pour  into  the  colony,  and  ten 
years  later  (1727)  the  Governor  (Patrick  Gordon)  informed 
the  Council  of  the  possible  dangers  arising  from  such  a 
large  influx  of  foreigners.  "  A  vessel  has  just  arrived,"  he 
said,  "  with  four  hundred  Palatines  on  board,  and  they  are 
soon  to  be  followed  by  a  much  greater  number.  ,  .  .  They 
transport  themselves  without  any  leave  obtained  from  the 
Crown  of  Great  Britain,  and  settle  themselves  upon  the 
proprietor's  lands  without  any  application  to  his  commis- 
sioners or  the  government.  Measures  ought  to  be  taken  at 
once  for  the  peace  and  security  of  the  province  which  may 
be  endangered   by  such   numbers  of   strangers  daily  poured 

^  Colonial  Records,  iii,  29.  Owing  to  the  adoption  of  this  measure,  the  names 
of  most  of  the  immigrants  who  came  into  Pennsylvania  for  the  next  fifty  years 
have  been  preserved.     Rupp's  Collections, 


175]  ^^'  -^^^  MIDDLE  COLONIES  49 

in,  who  being  ignorant  of  our  language  and  laws,  and 
settling  in  a  body  together,  make,  as  it  were,  a  distinct 
people  from  his  Majesty's  subjects." 

The  Board  of  Councillors  seriously  discussed  the  situa- 
tion, and  decided  that,  until  some  proper  remedy  could  be 
had  from  England  "  to  prevent  the  importation  of  such  num- 
bers of  strangers,"  all  these  "  new  comers"  should  be  exam- 
ined as  to  their  intentions,  and  that  an  instrument  should  be 
drawn  up  for  them  to  sign,  declaring  their  allegiance  and 
subjection  to  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  and  fidelity  to  the 
Proprietary  of  the  Province.^ 

It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  what  encouragement  or  aid,  if 
any,  these  immigrants  received  from  the  Home  Government, 
It  is  apparent  from  the  records  that  many  of  them  first  made 
their  way  to  England,  and  thence  took  passage  for  the  Col- 
onies. Most  of  them  were  very  poor,  and  many,  unable  to 
pay  all  or  even  a  part  of  their  passage  money,  agreed  to 
bind  themselves  as  servants  to  settlers  who  would  pay  the 
Master  of  the  vessel  for  their  fare.  These  were  known  as  Re- 
demptioners,  and  many,  who  could  not  otherwise  have  trans- 
ported themselves,  were  thus  enabled  to  make  their  way  to 
America  and  after  a  few  years  to  acquire  land  and  to  become 
prosperous  settlers.^ 

^  Colonial  Records,  iii,  283.  "  We  the  Subscribers,  natives  and  late  inhabitants 
of  the  Palatinate  upon  the  Rhine  and  places  adjacent,  having  transported  our- 
selves into  this  Province  of  Pennsylvania,  a  colony  subject  to  the  Crown  of  Great 
Britain,  in  hopes  and  expectation  of  finding  a  retreat  and  peaceable  settlement 
therein :  Do  solemnly  promise  and  engage  that  we  will  be  faithful  and  bear  true 
allegiance  to  his  present  Majesty  King  George  II.  and  his  successors,  and  will  be 
faithful  to  the  Proprietors  of  this  Province;  and  that  we  will  demean  ourselves 
peaceably  to  all  his  said  Majesty's  subjects,  and  strictly  obser\'e  and  conform  to 
the  laws  of  England  and  of  this  Province  to  the  utmost  of  our  power  and  best  of 
our  understanding." 

'  We  read  of  Palatine  Servants  (1722)  being  disposed  of  at  L\o  each  for  five 
years  servitude,  and  advertisements  like  the  following  were  frequent :  "  Lately 
imported,  and  to  be  sold  cheap,  a  parcel  of  likely  men  and  women  servants."" 
These  were  probably  Redemptioners.     Watson's  Annals,  ii,  266. 


50  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATTON  LAWS  [176 

In  addition  to  these  Germans,  a  considerable  number  of 
Irish  servants,  the  forerunners  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  have  since  left  their  native  home  for  America,  began  to 
arrive  in  the  Colony. 

The  year  1728-29  witnessed  such  an  influx  of  Germans 
J  and  Irish  that  the  colonists  became  alarmed ;  and  in  May, 
1729,  the  Assembly  passed  an  Act  laying  a  duty  on  for- 
eigners and  Irish  servants  imported  into  the  Province.  The 
printed  records  of  the  Colony  give  only  the  bare  title  of  the 
law;  but  Oldmixon,  in  his  "British  Empire  in  America," 
alludes  to  the  measure,  and  says  that  the  duty  was  5  s.  per 
head  on  all  "new  comers."  A  modern  writer  is  authority 
for  the  statement  that  it  was  40  s.  This  latter  amount 
seems  more  probable,  as  several  shiploads  of  immigrants, 
destined  for  Pennsylvania,  were  repelled  by  the  duty,  and 
put  in  at  New  Jersey ;  while  others  went  south  to  the  Caro- 
linas.'  The  obvious  intent  of  the  measure  was  to  restrict  the 
settling  of  such  a  host  of  foreigners  among  them,  and  to  pre- 
vent the  importation  of  too  many  Irish  servants,  probably 
for  religious  reasons.''  However,  the  law  was  repealed 
within  a  very  few  months,  and  thenceforth  the  usual  encour- 
agements were  offered  to  new  settlers. 

The  Germans  were  principally  farmers.  They  settled  on 
the  fertile  lands  along  the  Susquehanna,  and  with  untiring 
industry  and  great  frugality  soon  provided  themselves  with 
comfortable  homes ;  while  the  abundance  of  their  products 
made  the  trade  of  Pennsylvania  equal  to  that  of  the  older 
colonies.  Governor  Thomas,  in  his  message  to  the  Assembly 
in  1738,  asking  for  an  appropriation  to  build  a  hospital  for 
immigrants,  attributed  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  Prov- 
ince to  the  thrift  and  industry  of  the  German   settlers ;   but 

^  Oldmixon,  British  Empire  in  A'ortk  America,  i,  321. 

*  It  is  hardly  possible  that  the  act  applied  to  English  settlers. 


177]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  51 

the  legislature  evidently  did  not  wholly  agree  with  their 
executive,  and  replied  somewhat  sharply  to  his  insinuation.' 
During  the  years  from  1720  to  1750  no  less  than  60,000 
German  settlers  arrived  in  the  Colony,  and  in  addition  to 
these  a  considerable  number  of  Scotch  and  Irish.  The 
pamphlets  of  that  period  contain  frequent  allusions  to  this 
prodigious  immigration,  and  many  fears,  not  unfamiliar  in 
our  own  time,  were  publicly  expressed.  One  writer  ex- 
pressed anxiety  lest  they  "  would  produce  a  German  Colony 
there,  and  perhaps  such  a  one  as  Britain  received  from  Sax- 
ony in  the  5th  century."''  In  his  "  Summary,"  Douglass, 
writing  about  1750,  refers  to  their  "  laborious  and  penurious 
manner  of  living,"  and  fears  lest  they  "  out  the  British  from 
the  Colony."  Speaking  of  the  immense  immigration,  he 
writes,  "there  were  imported  into  that  Province  (1750) 
4,317  Germans,  and  only  about  1,000  British  and  Irish,  If 
this  be  not  soon  limited  by  a  Provincial  Act,  or  by  the  der- 
nier resort,  an  Act  of  Parliament,  the  Province  will  soon  de- 
generate into  a  foreign  colony,  endangering  the  quiet  of  our 
adjacent  colonies."^  Another  writer  of  the  period  complains 
that  they  settle  in  communities,  and  have  schools  taught, 
books  printed,  and  even    newspapers   printed    in   their  own 

'  From  the  Governor's  Message  :  "  This  Province  has  been  for  some  years  the 
asylum  of  the  distressed  Protestants  of  the  Palatinate  and  other  parts  of  Germany, 
and  I  believe  it  may,  in  truth,  be  said  that  the  present  flourishing  condition  of  it 
is  in  a  great  measure  owing  to  the  industry  of  those  people;  and  should  any  dis- 
couragement divert  them  from  coming  hither,  it  may  well  be  apprehended  that 
the  value  of  your  lands  will  fall,  and  your  advances  to  wealth  be  much  slower,  for 
it  is  not  altogether  the  goodness  of  the  soil,  but  the  number  and  industry  of  the 
people  that  make  a  flourishing  country."  The  Assembly  replied  as  follows :  "  We 
are  of  the  opinion  with  the  Governor,  that  the  flourishmg  condition  of  this 
Prt)vince  is  in  part  owing  to  the  importation  of  Germans  and  other  foreigners; 
but  we  beg  leave  to  say  that  it  is  chiefly  to  be  ascribed  to  the  lenity  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  to  the  sobriety  and  industry  of  the  first  settlers  of  this  country,  and 
the  other  British  subjects  inhabiting  the  same."   Colonial  Records,  Penna.,  iv,  315. 

'  Watson's  Annals,  ii,  255. 

"  Douglass,  Sutnmary,  ii,  326. 


5 2  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  ("178 

language,  thus  constituting  a  foreign  colony  and  likely  to 
continue  so  for  many  generations.^ 

By  this  time  a  regular  fleet  of  vessels  was  in  service  engaged 
in  transporting  settlers  to  the  various  colonies  ;  and  it  is  need- 
less to  say  that,  owing  to  the  long  trip  and  poor  accommo- 
dations, the  hardships  of  immigrant  passengers  to-day  are  as 
nothing  compared  with  those  who  came  over  in  the  crowded 
sailing  vessels  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Foul  air  and  in- 
sufficient food  bred  disease,  and  vessels  arrived  in  port  with 
half  of  their  passengers  sick.  A  quarantine  was  established 
at  Philadelphia,  and  a  pest-house  provided  at  public  expense  ; 
but  not  until  after  a  deal  of  bitter  correspondence  between 
the  Governor  and  the  Assembly. 

In  1755  the  latter  passed  a  measure,  entitled  "An  act  for 
preventing  the  importation  of  Germans  or  other  passengers 
in  too  great  numbers  in  any  ship."  The  measure  evidently 
had  a  wider  scope  than  its  mere  title  would  imply ;  for  the 
Governor  returned  it  with  his  veto,  observing  that  several 
parts  of  the  bill  militated  against  the  principles  of  humanity, 
and  in  general  amounted  "  to  an  absolute  prohibition  of  Ger- 
mans which  might  not  look  well  at  home  nor  be  for  the  inter- 
est of  the  Province." 

It  will  be  noted  that  in  all  these  contests  the  Governor 

^Burke's  European  Settlements  in  America,  ii,  201.  "Pennsylvania  is  in- 
habited by  upwards  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  jjeople,  half  of  whom  are 
Germans,  Swedes  and  Dutch It  was  certainly  a  very  right  policy  to  encour- 
age the  importation  of  foreigners  into   Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  into  our  other 

colonies I  do  by  no  means  think  that  this  sort  of  transplantations  ought 

to  be  discouraged;  I  only  observe  along  with  others  that  the  manner  of  their 
settlement  ought  to  be  regulated,  and  means  sought  to  have  them  naturalized  in 
reality." 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  exactly  the  same  complaints  have  been  made  in  Con- 
gress within  recent  years  by  representatives  from  some  of  the  Northwestern  States, 
and  similar  remedies  proposed ;  namely,  some  governmental  regulation  in  their 
settlement,  so  as  to  prevent  any  considerable  body  of  them  from  settling  in  one 
place. 


y^^  \  U  H  A  ft  y;*'*^ 

[  V  ERSITY  I 


"^itiSjSi^' 


/ 


179]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  53 

is  invariably  found  on  the  side  of  the  immigrants ;  and  quite 
naturally,  as  he  was  appointed  by,  and  represented,  the  Pro- 
prietary whose  interests  were  best  served  by  a  large  popula- 
tion and  the  consequent  disposal  of  his  lands.  It  seems  not 
an  unfair  inference  from  the  attitude  of  the  colonists  that, 
left  to  their  own  free  will,  they  would  have  prevented  the 
settling  of  such  a  large  body  of  foreigners  amongst 
them.' 

The  Seven  Years'  War  and  its  side-play  in  America  shut 
off  for  a  time  the  stream  of  immigration.  It  revived  some- 
what during  the  decade  from  1760  to  '70,  when,  owing  to 
the  hostilities  between  the  colonies  and  the  mother  country, 
it  again  subsided  and  Pennsylvania  received  no  appreciable 
additions  from  Europe  until  the  great  movements  of  the 
present  century. 

Despite  the  fears  and  forebodings  of  the  English  settlers 
no  serious  evils  resulted  from  the  great  body  of  foreigners 
who  settled  in  Pennsylvania.^  They  proved  to  be  industrious, 
faithful  citizens  and  loyal  subjects  of  the  king,  until  the  War 
for  Independence  began,  when  they  generously  and  patrioti- 
cally supported  their  state  governments  and  the  Continental 

^  The  messages  of  the  governors  frequently  allude  to  the  jealousy  with  which 
the  Germans  and  Irish  were  regarded  by  the  English  settlers,  and  although  the 
Assembly  as  frequently  deny  the  allegation,  yet  their  actions  usually  belie  their 
words.  On  one  occasion,  replying  to  the  Governor's  charges,  they  wrote,  "  the 
Protestant  part  of  the  new  arrivals  we  look  upon  as  laborious,  industrious  peo- 
ple, and  all  such  we  gladly  welcomed,"  thus  presumably  leaving  to  the  Catholics 
■whatever  comfort  might  be  contained  in  the  necessary  inference.  Colonial 
Records,  iv,  507. 

''■  The  governments  of  New  Jersey  and  Delaware,  for  many  years  after  their 
settlement,  were  so  intimately  associated  with  those  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl- 
vania that  no  individual  policies  toward  immigration  seem  to  have  been  instituted. 
The  Proprietors  and  companies  interested  in  these  territories  adopted  the  custom- 
ary plans  of  attracting  settlers,  and  were  successful  in  securing  a  fair  share  of  the 
Continental  as  well  as  British  immigrants.  Their  Assembly  Records,  howeven 
aside  from  certain  religious  measures,  contain  no  specific  acts  either  encouraging 
or  restricting  immigration. 


54  COLONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  [  i  8o 

Congress,  contributing  in  no  small  measure  to  the  successful 
issue  of  the  struggle. 

SUMMARY 
The  striking  contrast  between  the  New  England  and  the 
Middle  Colonies  in  their  attitude  toward  the  admission  of 
immigrants  is  due  to  several  causes.     The  territory  of  New 

\  York  did  not  come  under  English  control  until  1664,  and  it 
was  nearly  twenty  years  later  when  the  Quakers  made  their 
first  settlement  in  Pennsylvania.  Thus,  both  of  these  colo- 
nies were  inaugurated  at  a  time  when  the  bigotry  and  nar- 
rowness that  had  characterized  the  first  half  of  the  century 

V  were  on  the  wane.  The  Englishman  of  1664,  whether  Puri- 
tan or  Cavalier,  was  liberal,  in  matters  both  civil  and  reli- 
gious, compared  to  his  ancestors  of  1620,  and  this  liberality 
naturally  reflected  itself  in  the  colonies  established  there- 
after. The  idea  of  founding  colonies  on  a  theocratic  basis, 
with  narrow  restrictions  along  all  lines,  so  strongly  mani- 
fested in  New  England,  was  abandoned,  and  instead  a  com- 
paratively liberal  policy  toward  settlers  of  dififcrent  creeds 
and  nationalities  was  adopted.  Pennsylvania  was  especially 
fortunate  in  this  respect,  in  having  as  its  founder  a  man  of 
noble  character,  whose  tolerant  attitude  toward  all  religious 
faiths,  and  whose  generous  treatment  of  settlers  from  all  parts 
of  Europe  was  continued  by  his  successors  and  became  the 
settled  policy  of  the  colony.  The  few  restrictive  measures 
that  were  passed  did  not  long  remain  on  the  statute  books, 

\  and  served  only  to  divert  for  a  time  the  tide  of  immigration 
to  other  colonies.  The  ungenerous  policy  of  the  New  York 
authorities  toward  the  Palatines  was  an  unfortunate  affair  for 
the  prosperity  of  the  colony,  as  it  resulted  in  keeping  thou- 
sands of  those  worthy  settlers  from  locating  in  that  province. 
Again,  the  political  events  in  Europe  favored  the  rapid  set- 
tlement of  these  colonies.     The  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 


l8i]  OF  THE  MIDDLE  COLONIES  ^^ 

Nantes  and  the  wars  of  Louis  XIV  resulted  in  driving  thou- 
sands of  Protestants  from  their  native  lands,  and  gladly  they 
turned  to  the  English  colonies,  where  they  might  enjoy  civil 
and  religious  freedom  and  share  in  the  generous  bounty 
which  rewarded  the  industrious  settler. 


CHAPTER  VI 

IMMIGRATION   LAWS    OF   THE    SOUTHERN   COLONIES 

The  Southern  Colonies,  extending  in  their  founding  from 
that  of  Virginia  in  1607  to  that  of  Georgia  in  1732,  exhibit 
in  their  legislation  on  immigration  the  progress  and  develop- 
ment of  over  a  century  of  experience.  However,  the  phil- 
anthropic motives  apparent  in  the  founding  of  the  latter  col- 
ony were  virtually  a  return  to  old  ideas,  and  the  partial  failure 
of  Oglethorpe's  venture  might  have  been  predicted  from  a 
study  of  similar  attempts  more  than  a  century  before.  Like 
the  Middle  Colonies,  this  group  was  naturally  attractive  to 
European  immigrants ;  an  abundance  of  fertile  land,  naviga- 
ble rivers,  and  a  genial  climate,  nothing  was  wanting  to  en- 
courage immigration  but  liberality  in  the  granting  of  lands 
and  an  equable  government.  With  but  few  exceptions  these 
artificial  inducements  were  offered.  i^V 

The  commercial  idea  seems  to  have  been  the  predominat- 
ing motive  in  the  settlement  and  management  of  these  colo- 
nies, and  consequently  their  efiforts  to  foster  and  encourage 
im.migration  show  a  marked  activity,  especially  in  case  of 
the  Carolinas  and  Georgia. 

Owing  to  natural  conditions,  moreover,  a  system  of  agri- 
culture was  begun  and  developed,  which  created  a  great  de- 
mand for  servant  labor,  and  accordingly  a  considerable  part 
of  theirimmigratimT_con^^  this  class.     Indeed,  so  great 

was  the  demand  that  unscrupulous  contractors,  encouraged 
by  imperial  legislation,  imported  thousands  of  convicts  and 

sold  them  to  the  planters.     There  was  undoubtedly  a  de- 
56  [182 


183]  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  57 

mand  for  this  labor,  but  it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  major- 
ity of  the  colonists  did  not  favor  their  importation  and 
yielded  only  to  superior  sanction.  But  worse  than  this  even, 
at  least  in  its  later  results,  was  the  importation  of  negroes. 
Slave  labor  was  found  to  be  profitable,  and,  early  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  provinces,  negro  slaves  were  introduced,  and 
continued  to  be  imported  during  the  entire  period  under 
consideration.  A  few  attempts  were  made  at  restriction, 
but  for  the  most  part  demand  regulated  the  supply. 

Thus,  while  many  of  the  best  people  who  immigrated  to 
America  settled  in  the  Southern  Colonies,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that,  taken  as  a  mass,  their  immigration  was  inferior 
to  that  of  the  ruritan  and  Middle  Colonies.  ••  There  was, 
relatively,  a  greater  number  of  actual  settlers  among  the  im- 
migrants to  the  northern  groups ;  men  with  families,  who 
brought  some  substance  and  whose  efforts  from  the  begin- 
ning were  directed  toward  the  acquirement  of  land  and  the 
establishment  of  homes. 

MARYLAND. 

It  is  commonly  supposed,  and  in  fact  passes  as  a  matter  of 
history,  that  the  Province  of  Maryland  was  founded  as  an 
asylum  for  the  Roman  Catholics.  Whatever  may  have  been 
the  primary  motive  of  the  originator,  it  is  quite  evident  that 
it  was  not  his  intention  to  establish  the  colony  exclusively  for 
that  class.  The  circumstances  indicate  that  if  any  of  the 
American  Colonies  were  instituted  with  the  idea  of  religious 
toleration,  Maryland  seems  to  have  been  that  colony. 

The  charter  was  a  compact  between  Charles  I.,  a  member 
of  the  English  Church,  and  Lord  Baltimore,  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic. From  a  study  of  the  instrument  itself  and  a  considera- 
tion of  the  circumstances  attending  the  grant,  it  seems  fair 
to  infer  that  to  the  confessors  of  each  faith  it  was  a  pledge 
of  religious  freedom.     Lord  Baltimore  had  strenuously  en- 


5 8  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [184 

deavored  to  secure  a  large  body  of  colonists,  and,  as  shown 
by  the  papers  of  "  Father  White,"  a  Catholic  priest  who  ac- 
companied the  first  settlers,  the  invitation  of  Calvert  was  in 
no  way  limited  to  the  members  of  his  own  church.  Indeed, 
the  writings  of  this  good  father  indicate  that  a  majority  of 
the  original  colonists  were  Protestant,  for,  in  reporting  to 
Rome,  he  speaks  with  evident  disappointment  about  most  of 
the  settlers  being  "  hercticks." ' 

In  1656,  one  of  Lord  Baltimore's  friends  wrote  that  "the 
population  of  the  colony  was  composed  of  Conformists, 
Non-conformists,  and  a  few  Papists,"^  It  is  well  to  bear 
these  facts  in  mind  in  studying  the  anti-immigration  laws 
of  Maryland,  for,  as  has  been  intimated,  the  opinion  is 
quite  general  that  the  Catholics  were  subsequently  perse- 
cuted and  restricted  from  settling  in  the  very  colony  which 
had  been  founded  exclusively  for  their  benefit.  For  several 
years  Catholics  and  Protestants  lived  together  without  any 
serious  trouble. 

The  offers  of  Lord  Baltimore  to  new  settlers  were  most 
generous,  and  Maryland  grew  rapidly  from  the  start.  The 
Assembly  took  an  active  interest  in  the  material  progress  of 
the  colony,  and  at  one  of  its  early  sessions  passed  a  meas- 
ure entitled  "  An  Act  for  the  better  peopling  of  this  Prov- 
ince," 3  and  in  other  ways  cooperated  with  the  Proprietary 
and  the  Governor  in  their  efforts  to  attract  settlers. 

In  1649  was  passed  an  act  granting  toleration  to  all  be- 
lievers ;  but  a  few  years  later,  during  the  Commonwealth 
period,  it  was  enacted  that  none  who  professed  the  "  Popish 
Religion  "   would  be   protected.'*     This  was  only  five  years 

'  Maryland  Hist.  Soc.  Collection, 
'  Maryland  Archives,  v,  133. 
•"•Maryland  Assembly  Proceedings,  1637. 
*  Maryland  Archives,  340. 


185]  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  59 

after  the  Toleration  Act,  and  is  the  first  intimation  of  any 
hostility  between  the  two  sects.     Although  it  was  soon  re- 
pealed and  no  definite  act  against  the  Catholics  was  passed 
until  the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century,  yet  it  is  appa-  1 
rent  that  indirectly  the   Protestants  did  everything  short  of  1 
enacting  such  a  measure  to  discourage  immigrants  of  that  \ 
religious  faith. 

During  these  years  the  Assembly  and  Council  were  very 
active  in  encouraging  the  coming  of  foreigners  by  passing 
numerous  naturalization  and  denization  acts,  whereby  set- 
tlers from  European  countries  were  made  secure  in  their 
land  titles  and  given  protection  of  the  laws.^ 

About  1667  the  establishment  of  the  Church  of  England 
must  have  been  proposed,  for  Lord  Baltimore  writing  to  the 
King  concerning  the  colony  referred  to  the  act  concerning 
freedom  of  conscience  as  a  great  inducement  to  settlers,  and 
added,  "  The  greatest  part  of  the  inhabitants  of  that  Prov- 
ince, three-fourths  at  least,  consist  of  Presbyterians,  Inde- 
pendents, Anabaptists,  and  Quakers,  those  of  the  Church  of 
England  and  those  of  the  Romish  Church  being  fewest;  so 
that  it  will  be  a  difficult  task  to  draw  such  persons  to  consent 

^  Maryland  ^rf/«'z/^j,  iii,  476,  (^Council  Proceedings)  :  "Whereas  Isaac  Bedlo, 
late  of  England,  and  of  Dutch  parents,  having  transported  himself  into  this  province* 
here  to  inhabit  and  as  a  free  denizen  freedom  land  to  him  and  his  heirs  to  pur- 
chase; know  ye  that  we  willing  to  give  due  encouragemetit  to  the  subjects  of  that 
nation  do  hereby  declare  him,  the  said  Isaac  Bedlo  to  be  a  free  denizen  of  this 
our  province." 

These  Acts  of  Denization  conferred  civil  but  not  political  rights.  The  naturali- 
zation laws  were  in  the  hands  of  the  Lower  Assembly.  A  good  instance  is 
the  Petition  of  Naturalization,  1674  (Maryland  Assembly  Proceedings,  ii,  461). 
After  stating  the  places  of  their  birth  and  the  fact  that  they  were  induced  to 
come  to  Maryland  through  the  offers  of  the  Governor  as  regards  land,  the  petition 
reads:  "but  for  that  your  petitioners  are  not  of  British  or  Irish  descent  may  to 
their  great  loss,  prejudice  or  hindrance,  as  also  to  the  deterring  of  divers  others  of 
the  said  foreign  nations  aforesaid  from  coming  into  this  province  and  by  conse- 
quence foreslowing  the  people  of  this  province  with  useful  artificers  and  handi- 
craftsmen, etc.,  etc."  .  .  .  The  petitioners  ask  that  they  be  naturalized. 


5o  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGEA  TION  LAWS  [  1 86 

to  a  law  which  shall  compel  them  to  maintain  ministers  of  a 
contrary  persuasion."' 

The  Act  of  Establishment  was  not  finally  passed  until 
1692,  and  from  that  time  the  Assembly  Proceedings  are 
filled  with  Acts  curtailing  the  religious  and  political  rights 
of  Catholics,  and  in  many  other  ways  restricting  their  fur- 
ther immigration.  The  first  step  was  taken  in  1704,  when 
priests  were  forbidden  to  hold  any  public  service  or  engage 
in  the  work  of  education;^  and  in  171 5  the  Assembly  placed 
a  fine  of  20  s.  on  every  Irish  servant  brought  into  the  prov- 
ince, its  avowed  purpose  being  "  to  prevent  the  too  great 
importation  of  Papists."  ^  A  few  years  later  an  additional 
tax  of  20s.  was  laid  on  Irish  Catholic  servants,  and  provision 
made  for  the  better  discovery  of  that  class  by  means  of  cer- 
tain test  oaths, ^  and  members  of  that  faith  were  also  rendered 
ineligible  to  hold  ofifice  and  disfranchised. 

It  is,  of  course,  very  apparent  that  all  these  laws  were  but 
an  echo  of  the  Parliamentary  Statutes  concerning  Roman 
Catholics.  Lord  Baltimore  had  been  deprived  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  his  colony,  and  for  several  years  Maryland  was 
under  the  general  regulations  of  the  other  Royal  Provinces. 
Thus  the  Catholics  of  Great  Britain  fared  worse  than  their 
persecuted  Protestant  brethren  on  the  continent.  The  latter 
found  a  warm  welcome  in  America,  while  the  former  were 
harassed  both  at  home  and  in  the  colonies.  During  the 
French  and  Indian  War  the  feeling  against  the  Catholics  was 
very  bitter.     A  double  tax  was  placed  on  their  lands,  and  in 

'  Maryland  Archives,  v,  133. 

*  Maryland  Laws,  108. 

*  Ibid.,  108.  As  every  insurrection  or  suspected  plot  was  charged  to  the  CathO' 
lies,  and  as  the  same  law  taxing  Irish  servants  placed  a  duty  on  rum,  it  may  be 
observed  that  the  famous  alliteration  Rum,  Romanism  and  Rebellion  might  have 
been  more  appropriately  and  perhaps  less  disastrously  associated  at  that  time  than 
at  a  more  recent  period  of  our  history. 

*  Bacon's  Laws,  171 5. 


ig^]  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  6 1 

many  ways  their  position  in  the  colony  was  rendered  haz- 
ardous and  their  further  immigration  discouraged.' 

There  was,  however,  another  kind  of  immigrant  of  a  far 
more  objectionable  type  than  the  Catholics,  namely,  the 
convicts  from  English  prisons.  Maryland,  like  the  other 
colonies,  was  unwilling  to  accept  them,  and  considered  it 
gross  injustice  on  part  of  the  home  government  to  ship  that 
class  into  the  colony.  The  custom  of  transporting  felons 
into  the  Provinces  had  been  in  vogue  many  years  before 
Parliament  gave  it  legal  sanction.  As  early  as  1676,  the 
Maryland  Assembly  passed  an  act  forbidding  the  importa- 
tion of  any  convicts  and  imposing  a  fine  of  2,000  lbs.  of 
tobacco  on  any  person  violating  its  provisions.^ 

A  few  years  after  the  Parliamentary  Act  regulating  the 
transportation  of  felons,3  the  authorities  of  Maryland  again 
considered  the  "  alarming  evil,"  and  the  question  of  again 
imposing  a  duty  was  referred  to  the  Attorney-General  of 
England,  who  reported  adversely. '^  The  Assembly  then 
contented  itself  with  passing  some  minor  regulations,  which 
apparently  had  no  effect  in  restricting  the  traffic,  for  they 
were  brought  in  by  the  hundreds  every  year.s 

Slave  labor  was  found  to  be  profitable  in  Maryland,  and 
negroes  were  brought  into  the  colony  soon  after  its  settle- 
ment.    As  in  case  of  the  other  Southern  Colonies,  a  tax  was 

^  Maryland  Archives,  vi,  496.  Much  of  the  correspondence  of  Governor  Sharpe 
relates  to  this  subject.  The  worthy  Governor  was  apparently  very  much  annoyed 
by  the  continual  rumors  concerning  the  Catholics,  sent  over  to  England  by  the 
Protestants;  for  at  the  close  of  one  of  his  letters  he  writes:  "  I  must  say  that  if  I 
were  asked  whether  the  conduct  of  the  Protestants  or  Catholics  in  this  province 
had  been  most  unexceptionable  since  I  have  had  the  honor  to  serve  your  Lord- 
ship I  should  not  hesitate  to  answer  in  favor  of  the  latter." 

'  Maryland  Archives,  ii,  540  (continued  by  several  surviving  acts  until  1692). 
"4  Geo.  I,  c.  II. 
*Chalmer's  Opinions,  2,^^' 
^  Douglass'  Summary. 


62  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  [i88 

frequently  levied  on  negroes  brought  into  the  colony,  but  for 
purposes  of  revenue  rather  than  as  restrictive  measures.' 
A  report  to  the  Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Plantations, 
made  about  1720,  computes  the  population  as  "  consisting 
of  35,000  whites  and  25,000  blacks,  from  whence  it  appears 
that  the  inhabitants  have  doubled  in  fifteen  years,  and  al- 
though some  part  of  this  increase  may  have  been  occasioned 
by  the  transportation  of  the  rebels  from  Preston,  by  the  pur- 
chase of  slaves,  as  well  as  by  the  arrival  of  convict  persons 
y  and  many  poor  families  who  have  transported  themselves 
from  Ireland,  yet  it  must  be  allowed  that  Maryland  is  one  of 
the  most  flourishing  provinces  upon  the  continent  of  Amer- 
ica." 

VIRGINIA. 

The  settlement  of  Virginia  may  be  traced  to  a  curious 
mixture  of  social,  economic  and  missionary  motives.  When 
the  first  Assembly  met  in  1619,  the  population  of  this  colony 
consisted  of  a  few  middle  class  English  gentlemen,  either 
owners  or  managers  of  extensive  plantations,  and  several 
hundred  male  servants,  collected  from  various  parts  of  Brit- 
ain, and  of  doubtful  reputation.  A  resident  of  the  colony 
during  that  period  complains  "  that  the  people  sent  to  in- 
habit in  Virginia  are  most  of  them  the  scum  and  ofif-scouring 
of  the  nation,  vagrants  or  condemned  persons,  or  such  others 
as  by  the  looseness  and  viciousness  of  their  lives  have  dis- 
abled themselves  to  subsist  any  longer  in  England.'  This 
condition  of  affairs   improved   after  the   first  twenty  years ; 

'In  1 67 1  a  curious  law  was  placed  on  the  Statute  Book  of  Maryland,  entitled 
"  An  Act  for  encouraging  the  itnpprtation  of  negroes  and  slaves."  It  stated  that 
many  persons  were  discouraged  from  purchasing  slaves  lest  the  slaves  by  embrac- 
ing Christianity  became  free.  For  the  reassurmg  of  all  such  the  law  set  forth  that 
Slavery  and  Christianity  were  entirely  compatible,  and  that  the  owner  still  retained 
his  property  even  after  the  baptismal  ceremony. 

^  Neill's  Virginia  Carolorum,  278. 


ivv.-Rsiirz  ] 


189]  (^^  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  $3 

more  free  settlers  began  to  immigrate,  bringing  their  fam- 
ilies and  establishing  homes  of  their  own. 

The  charter  of  1609  gave  the  Company  permission  to 
transport  British  subjects,  or  any  strangers  who  were  willing 
to  swear  allegiance  to  the  Crown ;  but  all  persons  who  "  af- 
fected the  superstitions  of  the  Church  of  Rome  "  were  di- 
rectly prohibited  from  settling  in  the  Province.'  Thus  the 
colony  was  placed  on  the  basis  of  intolerance  from  the  very 
beginning.  Not'  were  they  less  strongly  opposed  to  the  im- 
migration of  "Dissenters  or  Non-conformists."  As  early  as 
1631,  an  act  was  published  making  the  "  customs,  canons 
and  constitution  of  the  Church  of  England"  obligatory  on 
all  the  inhabitants,  and  some  years  later  a  company  of  Non- 
conformists were  banished  from  the  Province  and  took  refuge 
in  Maryland."* 

The  poor  Quakers  found  these  sunny  climes  almost  as  in- 
hospitable as  the  bleak  shores  of  New  England.  A  fine  of 
;^ioo  was  imposed  on  any  person  bringing  a  Quaker  into 
the  colony,  and  those  already  settled  there  were  ordered  to 
depart  on  pain  of  punishment.^ 

During  the  first  fifty  or  sixty  years  of  the  existence  of  the 
colony  there  seems  to  have  been  no  specific  act  on  the  part 
of  the  Assembly  to  encourage  immigration.  Several  highly 
drawn  accounts  of  the  Province  had  been  published  and  cir- 
culated in  England  and  on  the  continent,  which  served  to 
attract  many  settlers,  and  persons  in  England  who  were  com- 
mercially interested  were  likewise  active  in  schemes  for  in- 
creasing the  population.4     In   1671,  however,  the  House  of 

'  Charters  ami  Coftstitution  of  the  U.  S.,  1900. 

^  Hening's  Statutes,  i,  277. 

■' Hening's  Statutes,  ii,  131.  A  well  known  writer  of  Virginia  says:  "If  no 
capital  punishment  took  place  here  as  in  New  England,  it  was  not  owing  to  the 
moderation  of  the  church  or  the  spirit  of  the  legislature." 

*  Virginia  Carolorum,  128. 


64  COL  OaWIal  immigra  tion  la  WS  [  1 90 

Burgesses  took  action  in  the  matter,  and  their  records  for  that 
session  contain  a  Naturalization  Act,  the  specific  purpose  of 
which  was  to  encourage  immigration."  Nine  years  later 
they  testified  to  the  efificiency  of  this  method  in  speedily 
"settling  and  peopling"  the  Province,  and  in  order  to  facili- 
tate matters,  they  conferred  power  on  the  Governor  to  grant 
letters  of  naturalization.^ 
j  Governor  Berkley's  answers  to  the  Commissioners  of 
Trade  in  1670  give  an  idea  of  the  immigration  of  this 
period:  "Yearly,"  he  says,  "there  comes  in  about  1500 
persons,  of  which  the  most  are  English,  few  Scotch  and 
fewer  Irish,  and  not  above  two  or  three  shiploads  of  negroes 
\  in  seven  years."  3 

At  the  end  of  a  Tariff  Act,  passed  in  1691,  appears  a 
clause  to  the  effect  that,  in  order  to  encourage  the  immigra- 
tion and  settling  of  sea-faring  men  in  the  colony,  a  half-rate 
duty  on  liquors  would  be  allowed  them.-^  The  success  of 
this  device  is  not  indicated  in  any  subsequent  documents. 

The  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century  found  Virginia, 
like  her  neighboring  colonies,  anxious  to  secure  a  share  of 
the  European  immigrants  who  were  flocking  to  America. 
The  Assembly  realized  that  generosity  in  the  granting  of 
land  was  an  effective  measure,  and  in  the  "Land  Act"  of 
1705  the  following  inducements  were  offered: 

(«)  Every  person,  male  or  female,  "imported"  and  com- 
ing into  the  colony  free  had  the  right  to  50  acres  of  land. 

'  Hening's  Statutes,  ii,  289.  "  Whereas  nothing  can  tend  more  to  the  advance- 
ment of  a  new  plantation  either  to  its  defence  or  prosperity,  nor  nothing  more 
add  to  the  glory  of  a  prince  than  being  a  gracious  master  to  many  subjects."  *  * 
Strangers  to  become  naturalized  by  petitioning  the  Grand  Assembly,  taking  oath 
of  allegiance  to  His  Majesty.  The  fee  was  800  lbs.  tobacco  to  the  Speaker  and 
400  lbs.  to  the  clerk. 

'^  Hening,  ii,  464. 

"  Virginia  Carolorum,  335. 

*  Hening's  Statutes,  iii,  91. 


igj-l  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  65 

(^)  Every  Christian  servant,  on  becoming  free,  had  the 
right  to  50  acres. 

{c)  Every  person  "importing"  a  wife  or  children  under 
age  had  a  right  to  50  acres  for  the  wife  and  each  child. 

(d)  A  charge  of  5s.  for  every  50  acres  was  the  only  fee 
imposed.' 

The  subsequent  records  show  that  these  generous  offers 
brought  a  large  "influx"  of  settlers,  not  only  from  Europe, 
but  from  other  colonies. 

As  in  the  case  of  Maryland,  the  importation  of  convicts 
gave  the  colonists  much  anxiety.  The  Assembly  Records 
indicate  that  numerous  complaints  were  made  by  the  inhabi- 
tants, and  in  1671  it  was  decreed  that  "  no  person  trading 
with  Virginia,  either  by  land  or  sen,  should  bring  in  any 
'jail-birds.'"'  The  records  contain  numerous  acts  prohibit- 
ing at  first,  and  later  restricting  and  regulating  the  importa- 
tion of  convicts,  but  for  the  most  part  they  were  disallowed 
by  the  home  authorities,  on  the  ground  that  they  conflicted 
with  the  Parliamentary  Statute  on  that  subject.^ 

An  Act  of  1699  is  indicative  of  the  religious  intolerance 
of  the  times.  A  tax  of  20s.  was  imposed  on  every  servant 
brought  into  the  colony  not  born  in  England  or  Wales.  The 
object  as  set  forth  in  the  title  purported  to  be  the  raising  of 
funds   to  build   a  capitol,  but  one  cannot  avoid   suspecting 

'  Hening's  Statutes,  iii,  304. 

^  Hening's  Statutes,  ii,  509. 

•'"A  contemporarj'  writer  states  that  many  thousands  of  these  convicts  were  im- 
ported into  Maryland  and  Virginia  during  the  period  1700-1775.  An  interesting 
study  in  sociology  might  be  made  if  materials  were  availalile  for  tracing  the  sub- 
sequent development  of  this  class.  Pruf.  Shaler  believes  that  the  "  poor  whites," 
of  the  south  are  largely  the  descendants  uf  the  convicts  imported  into  the  southern 
colonies.  However,  after  witnessing,  in  our  own  time,  the  marvelous  assimilating 
qualities  of  American  life  and  the  civilizing  tendencies  of  American  opportunities 
it  is  not  improbable  thnt  a  large  part  of  them  were  absorbed  into  the  industrious 
and  respectable  portion  of  the  community. 


^^  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  [192 

that  there  were  other  motives  in  the  case,  not  the  least  of 
which  was  the  restriction  of  Irish  CathoHc  servants.' 

The  final  struggle  for  supremacy  in  America  between  the 
English  and  French  had  the  same  effect  in  Virginia  as  in  the 
other  colonies,  an  intensified  dislike  for  Catholics,  especially 
the  Jesuits,  so  that  additional  safeguards  were  provided  to 
prevent  their  coming  into  the  Province,  This  feeling  was  so 
strong  that  a  company  of  neutral  French  Catholics,  who 
had  been  conveyed  into  the  colony  by  the  home  authorities, 
were  ordered  to  be  removed  and  their  transportation  paid  for 
out  of  the  public  purse.  It  was  believed  that  their  presence 
would  greatly  endanger  the  peace  and  safety  of  the  colony.' 

THE  CAROLINAS  AND  GEORGIA. 
Virginia  held  much  the  same  relation  to  the  Carolinas  as 
did  Massachusetts  to  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island.  The 
first  settlers  in  that  territory  were  emigrants  from  Virginia, 
and  for  many  years  she  maintained  a  position  as  feeder  to 
the  less  populous  settlements  south  of  her  boundaries.  In- 
deed, one  of  the  aims  of  the  proprietors  seems  to  have  been 
to  attract  settlers  from  their  northern  neighbors ;  for  they 
made  such  conditions  in  regard  to  the  disposal  of  lands  that 
many  emigrants  from  the  older  colonies  found  their  way 
thither.  New  England,  Virginia  and  the  Barbadoes  each 
had  a  share  in  furnishing  the  population  of  the  Carolinas. 3 

'  Hening,  iii,  193. 

*  Hening's  Statutes,  vii,  35,  39. 

^  "  The  Lords  Proprietors  do  immediately  grant  to  all  persons  that  come  thither 
to  inhabit,  the  following  terms:  For  each  master  or  mistress  of  a  family  50  A.,  and 
for  every  able-bodied  son  or  man-servant  50  A.,  and  the  like  to  each  daughter  and 
woman-servant  that  is  marriageable,  and  for  every  child,  or  man  or  woman  ser- 
vant under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  40  A.  and  50  A.,  to  each  servant  so  soon  as 
time  of  service  with  their  master  is  expired  :  which  land  is  to  be  enjoyed  by  them 
and  their  heirs  forever,  upon  payment  of  only  one  penny  an  acre  quit-rent  to  the 
Lords  Proprietors,  which  is  not  to  commence  until  two  years  after  their  first  taking 
up  of  land."     Moore's  North  Carolina,  i. 


ip3]  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  67 

The  earliest  recorded  legislation  was  effected  about  1669, 
apparently  with  a  view  to  increase  the  population.  One  of 
these  laws  forbade  the  collection  of  debts  from  settlers  who 
had  contracted  them  before  coming  to  the  colony ;  a  some- 
what doubtful  expedient,  it  would  seem,  to  increase  their 
population  by  the  addition  of  dishonest  debtors.'  A  limited 
exemption  from  taxation  was  likewise  extended  to  new  set- 
tlers. These  and  other  liberal  measures  were  passed  in  order 
to  attract  any  who  might  chafe  under  the  restraints  of  the 
older  colonies,  but  unfortunately  the  class  thus  appealed  to 
were  not  the  most  desirable,  and  for  a  long  time  the  people 
of  Virginia  referred  to  Carolina  as  "Rogues'  Harbor." 

The  records  of  the  northern  and  southern  settlements  of 
Carolina  are  inextricably  confused  for  many  years.  Al- 
though they  each  had  separate  assemblies,  yet  they  were 
under  the  same  proprietors,  and  at  times  under  the  same 
governor;  and  not  until  the  early  years  of  the  i8th  century 
are  the  two  governments  clearly  distinguished  from  one 
another  in  the  reports  sent  over  to  England. 

The  Huguenot  emigration,  following  the  Revocation  of  the 
Edict  of  Nantes,  helped  to  swell  the  population  of  the  Caro- 
linas,  especially  the  southern  territory.  The  Proprietors  were 
especially  anxious  to  secure  these  industrious,  worthy  people 
as  settlers,  and  were  active  in  securing  their  removal  to  South 
Carolina. 

Several  thousand  of  these  "  refugees  "  fled  to  England,  as 
did  the  Palatines  later;   and,  through  public  and  private  aid, 

*  Moore's  History  of  North  Carolina,  i.  "  The  Gov't  of  this  Province  having 
for  many  years  been  a  very  disorderly  one,  this  becomes  a  place  of  Refuge  for  all 
vagabonds,  whom  either  debt  or  breach  of  the  laws  have  driven  from  the  other 
colonies  on  the  continent;  and  Pirates  having  too  frequently  found  entertainment 
amongst  them." 

Report  of  Com.  Trade  and  Plant's  (1721)  Doc.  Col.  Hist.  N.  J',  v,  609.  See 
Reply  to  Mr.  John  Fiske  by  Mr.  Wheeler,  of  N.  C.  (Pamphlet,  Harvard  Coll. 
Library.) 


58  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  T ION  LAWS  T 1 94 

many  of  them  were  transported  to  the  colonies.  North  Caro- 
lina attracted  several  shiploads  of  these  settlers  by  generous 
grants  of  lands ;  and  the  southern  province  had  an  agent  in 
England,  through  whose  efforts  several  hundred  families  were 
induced  to  settle  on  the  fertile  lands  of  that  colony.' 

In  1693,  one  Christopher  de  Grafenried,  through  arrange- 
ments with  the  Government  of  North  Carolina  and  by  the 
aid  of  money  from  the  English  Government,  transported  six 
hundred  Swiss  Palatines  to  the  colony.  They  soon  became 
a  flourishing  community,  and  attracted  others  of  their  exiled 
countrymen.' 

With  the  overthrow  of  the  Proprietary  Government  in  the 
Carolinas,  both  colonies  put  forth  strenuous  efiforts  to  in- 
crease their  population  by  securing  a  portion  of  the  Euro- 
pean immigrants  who  were  then  flocking  to  the  New  World. 
The  printed  records  show  frequent  evidences  of  this  activity. 
but  unfortunately  seldom  give  more  than  the  bare  title  of  the 
acts,  as,  e.g.:  "  An  Act  to  encourage  the  further  settlement  of 
this  Province."  3  The  full  text  would  no  doubt  disclose  many 
varied  and  interesting  expedients  for  the  encouragement  to 
immigration. 

About  1732  Monsieur  Jean  Pury,  of  Neuchatel,  Switzer- 
land, visited  North  Carolina,  and  made  a  proposition  to  set- 
tle a  colony  of  his  countrymen  in  the  Province.  The  As- 
sembly highly  approved  of  the  scheme,  and,  to  assist  him  in 
the  execution  of  it,  they  passed  an  act  offering  him  a  re- 
ward of  ii^400  upon  his  bringing  over  to  Carolina  one  hun- 
dred effective  men.  The  Government  further  promised  to 
furnish  provisions,  tools,  etc.,  for  three  hundred  persons  for 
one  year.  * 

'  Baird's  Huguenots  in  America.  ^  Rupp's  Collections. 

^Records  0/ the  Assembly  of  N.  C. 

*  This  is  but  one  of  many  similar  instances  in  the  history  of  the  Carolinas. 
There  seems  to  have  been  considerable  rivalry  among  the  colonies  in  the  matter 
of  securing  new  settlers.     See  Rupp's  Collections, 


RA  f? 

air  TMl' 


jgr-J  C>i^  r/Zi?  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  69 

The  first  permanent  settlement  in  South  Carolina  was 
made  about  1670  by  immigrants  from  England  and  a  few 
from  Barbadoes.  These  were  supplemented  by  others  from 
Scotland,  and,  in  1679,  as  has  already  been  stated,  two  ves- 
sels sent  out  under  the  patronage  of  the  English  Government 
brought  a  number  of  French  Protestants.  No  considerable 
group  of  settlers  arrived  from  1696  until  the  overthrow  of 
the  Proprietary  Government  about  1719,  when  vigorous 
measures  were  adopted  for  securing  a  large  immigration. 
Contracts  with  private  agents  were  made,  bounties  offered, 
free  lands  assigned,  and  many  other  inducements  offered  to 
allure  settlers.' 

The  plan  of  offering  bounties  to  "  importers,"  as  the  im- 
migration agents  were  designated,  seems  to  have  been  quite 
popular.     As  early  as   1678   an  Act  was  passed  offering  a 

'  The  printed  records  of  So  ;th  Carolina,  as  in  case  of  her  northern  neighbor, 
give  only  the  bare  titles  of  many  of  these  acts.  From  1696  until  1741  the  follow- 
ing are  to  be  found : 

ACTS  OF  THE  ASSEMBLY  OF  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 

1696.     An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  better  settlement  of  South  Carolina. 
An  Acifor  making  aliens  free  of  this  part  of  this  Province,  and  for  granting 
liberty  of  conscience  to  all  Protestants. 

1698.     An  Act  for  the  encouragement  of  the  importation  of  white  settlers. 

1 71 2.  An  Act  for  the  better  strengthening  of  this  Province  by  increasing  the 
number  of  inhabitants  thereof. 

1 713.  An  Act  to  encourai;e  strangers  to  come  to  this  port  by  making  Sullivan's 
Island  more  remarkable  by  building  a  new  outlook  and  buoying  the  channels. 

1 7 1 6.  An  Act  to  encourage  the  importation  of  white  servants  into  this  Province. 

1 71 7.  An  Act  to  gra7it  several  privileges,  exemptions  and  encouragements  to 
such  of  his  majesties  protestant  subjects  as  are  desirous  to  come  into  and  settle  in 
this  Province. 

1719.     An  Act.  for  the  encouragement  of  planting,  and  the  relief  of  debtors. 

1725.  An  Act  to  encourage  persons  to  become  settlers  of  the  Province  of  South 
Carolina. 

An  Act  for  the  better  settling  and  strengthening  of  this  Province. 

1735.  An  Act  to  provide  a  full  supply  for  subsisting  poor  Protestants  coming 
from  Europe  and  settling  his  Majesty's  New  Toivttships  in  this  Province, 

1 741.  An  Act  for  further  securing  his  Majesty's  province  of  South  Carolina, 
by  encouraging  Protestants  to  become  settlers  therein. 


70  COL  ONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LA  VVS  [  1 96 

bounty  for  the  importation  of  white  servants,  Irish  excepted, 
with  a  view  to  counteracting  the  large  number  of  negroes. 
The  law  further  provided  that  these  white  servants  should  be 
distributed  among  the  planters  in  the  ratio  of  one  to  every 
six  negro  slaves.  A  few  years  later  the  Assembly  passed  a 
similar  measure,  directing  the  Treasurer  to  pay  £,\\  to  "im- 
porters "  for  each  healthy  male  British  servant,  not  a  crimi- 
nal, between  twelve  and  thirty  years  of  age. 

The  report  of  Governor  James  Glen,  about  1750,  to  the 
Lords  of  Trade  and  Plantation  indicates  the  number  and 
general  character  of  the  immigration  into  South  Carolina. 
He  writes,  "We  have  had  betwixt  two  hundred  and  three 
hundred  Germans  withi^n  these  three  or  four  years  and  about 
the  same  number  of  families  from  other  provinces.  As  num- 
bers of  people  well  employed  make  the  riches  and  strength 
of  every  country,  I  am  determined  from  the  time  of  the  pro- 
clamation of  peace  to  observe  very  particularly  the  increase, 
either  in  the  natural  way,  or  by  the  accession  from  other 
provinces,  or  by  the  accession  of  foreigners  .  .  .  which  I 
think  may  be  several  thousands  in  a  few  years." ' 

The  close  of  the  French  and  Indian  War  witnessed  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  ^  to  attract  settlers. 
The  Assembly  of  South  Carolina  appropriated  a  large  fund 
for  bounties  to  foreign  Protestants  and  settlers  from  the 
British  Isles  who  should  come  to  the  colony  within  three 
years.3  Georgia  passed  a  similar  law,  and  was  surprised 
when  the  measure  was  disallowed  by  the  King  and  Privy 
Council.'* 

'  Documents  of  South  Carolina,  92.  The  historian  Ramsay  is  authority  for  the 
statement  that  in  a  single  year  one  thousand  families  resorted  to  South  Carolina 
from  the  other  colonies,  driving  their  live  stock  overland  before  them. 

*  The  Records  of  Georgia  concerning  immigration  follow  so  closely  the  policy 
and  measures  of  the  Carolinas  that  it  has  not  been  deemed  worth  while  to  give 
them  in  detail. 

*S.  C.  Historical  Records,  ii,  75.  *  Jones'  Georgia,  ii,  120. 


igy-\  OF  THE  SOUTHERN  COLONIES  yi 

We  learn  from  a  letter  of  Governor  Bull,  written  about 
1764,  that  the  South  Carolina  Act  attracted  a  large  number 
of  settlers  from  the  various  countries  of  Europe.  The  Euro- 
pean immigration  to  the  Carolinas  and  Georgia  during  these 
years  was  largely  from  Scotland  and  Ireland,  although  many 
Germans  found  homes  in  those  provinces.  It  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  the  three  Southern  colonies,  at  the  breaking  out  of 
the  revolution,  had  a  greater  number  of  foreign-born  inhabi- 
tants than  any  other  three  of  the  colonies. 

SUMMARY. 

The  colonization  of  the  Southern  colonies  extended  in  \ 
point  of  time  over  both  the  periods  which  have  been  noted, 
namely,  the  first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  civil 
and  religious  exclusiveness  was  the  prevailing  condition,  and  j 
the  latter  half  of  the  century,  when  a  more  Jiberal^spirit  ob- 
tained. Our  study  of  Virginia  and  the  Carolinas  reveals 
these  two  phases  of  colonization  quite  as  strikingly  as  do 
Massachusetts  and  Pennsylvania.  Maryland  began  well,  but 
did  not  long  maintain  the  generous  policy  of  her  founder. 
The  plans  for  the  founding  of  Georgia  do  not  reveal  that 
wisdom  which  an  experience  of  a  century  and  a  quarter  in 
colonization  ought  to  have  given  the  English.  The  first  set- 
tlers were  men  who  had  been  unable  to  cope  with  their  en- 
vironment at  home,  and  numerous  failures  in  the  past  at- 
tested to  the  utter  futility  of  sending  such  persons  to  begin 
a  colony  in  the  New  World. 

Oglethorpe's  ideas  were  philanthropic  but  impracticable. 
He  demonstrated  theoretically  that  those  who  at  home  were 
unable  to  earn  a  living  and  who  were  a  positive  incubus 
upon  the  fortunes  and  industry  of  others,  might  in  a  new 
country  maintain  themselves  in  comfort  and  enrich  the 
mother  country  with  the  product  of  their  labor ;  but  a  few 
years  of  experience  taught  him  that  individual  effort  and  in- 


72  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  ["i^g 

dustry  on  part  of  the  settlers  were  more  essential  to  the  suc- 
cess of  a  colony  than  the  most  elaborate  plans,  be  they  never 
so  charitably  conceived  and  admirably  carried  out. 


CHAPTER  VII 

ATTITUDE   OF   ENGLAND   TOWARD    IMMIGRATION 

The  attitude  of  England  toward  colonial  immigration  has 
been  more  or  less  apparent,  as  we  have  traced  the  movement 
from  the  American  side.  We  have  noticed  how  the  early 
charters  not  only  gave  British  subjects  permission  to  leave 
the  country  (for  without  such  permission  of  the  Crown  no 
subject  had  a  legal  right  to  leave  the  kingdom),  but  also  al- 
lowed the  colonization  companies  to  transport  all  foreigners 
who  might  be  willing  to  swear  allegiance  to  the  English 
Crown.  The  charter  of  1628  granted  permission  to  the 
Massachusetts  Bay  Company  to  transport  British  subjects  to 
New  England,  but  with  the  proviso  "  that  none  of  the  said 
persons  be  such  as  shall  be  especially  restrained," '  and  pre- 
vious to  1622  James  I.  had,  on  application  from  the  Plymouth 
Company,  ordered  that  none  should  frequent  the  coast  of 
New  England  but  the  "  adventurers  and  planters  of  that 
Company." 

The  removal  of  the  Puritans  stirred  up  some  opposition. 
Limits  on  the  emigration  were  proposed,  but  never  took 
practical  effect.  In  1634  Henry  Dade,  writing  to  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Canterbury  concerning  the  departure  of  so  many 
citizens,  says,  "  trade  will  be  overthrown,  and  persons  in- 
debted will  fly  into  New  England  and  be  accounted  religious 
men  for  leaving  the  kingdom."  ^  Other  contemporary  writers 
took  note  of  the  migration,  and  complained  that  such  a  num- 

'  Chalmers'  Opinions,  91. 

*  Weeden's  Economic  History  of  N.  /:.,      91. 

199]  73 


74  COLONIAL  IMMIGRA  TION  LA  WS  [20O 

ber  of  persons  of  "  good  abilities "  should  be  allowed  to 
"  depart  the  country."  Thus,  while  the  emigration  of  the 
Puritans  was  a  relief  to  the  king  and  his  archbishop,  yet  many 
looked  on  the  withdrawal  of  so  many  persons  as  a  serious 
loss  to  England.  It  is  apparent  from  some  of  the  pamphlet 
literature  of  the  times  that  there  was  a  considerable  opposi- 
tion to  colonies.  The  mercantile  doctrines  of  the  17th  cen- 
tury attached  a  high  value  to  a  dense  population,  as  an  ele- 
ment of  national  strength ;  and  it  was  argued  that  colonies 
would  weaken  the  parent  country  by  lessening  the  popula- 
tion. The  experience  of  Spain  was  frequently  mentioned  as 
an  argument  against  colonization.  Indeed,  as  late  as  1760, 
it  was  questioned  whether  colonies  were  worth  the  trouble 
and  expense  necessary  to  govern  and  protect  them. 

Until  the  reign  of  James  II.  the  welfare  of  the  colonies,  as 
regards  new  settlers,  was  for  the  most  part  in  the  hands  of 
the  proprietors  and  land  companies;  but,  with  the  ambitious 
design  of  that  monarch  to  unite  all  the  colonies  under  one 
government,  the  idea  seems  to  have  developed  of  using  the 
resources  of  Parliament  and  the  crown  to  foster  foreign  im- 
migration. Under  William  III.  and  Anne  this  idea  took 
practical  shape.  Parliament  voted  considerable  sums  of 
money  to  assist  Protestant  refugees  from  France,  Germany 
and  other  countries,  in  making  their  way  to  the  English 
colonies.  These  efforts  were  due  partly  to  political  and 
commercial  motives,  and  partly  to  the  genuine  interest 
which  England  took  in  championing  the  Protestant  cause 
in  Europe. 

The  colonies  had  already  passed  naturalization  laws,  both 
special  and  general,  and  the  provincial  governors  and  their 
councils  had  assumed  the  right  to  issue  letters  of  denization. 
This  latter,  however,  was  forbidden  by  an  order  in  council, 
February  5,  1699. 

Many  of  the  refugees  who  first  sought  England  were  nat- 


20 1  ]  ATTITUDE  OF  ENGLAND  75 

uralized  or  granted  letters  of  denization  before  leaving  that 
country.  It  was  frequently  urged  upon  the  home  govern- 
ment to  pass  a  general  naturalization  act  for  the  colonies ; 
but  it  was  not  until  1740  that  such  a  measure  was  enacted. 
Until  the  accession  of  George  III.  the  British  Government 
was  very  active  in  fostering  foreign  immigration  ;  and  nothing 
but  the  fear  of  offending  the  home  authorities  restrained 
some  of  the  colonies  from  taking  steps  to  restrict  the  influx 
of  foreign  settlers. 

The  fears  of  the  English  colonists,  however,  were  soon 
allayed.  They  came  to  realize  that  instead  of  introducing 
a  hostile  element  into  their  midst  the  foreigners  had  proved 
an  element  of  strength. 

The  home  authorities  realized  this  too ;  and,  accordingly, 
when  the  spirit  of  resistance  began  to  show  itself  they  en- 
deavored to  restrict  immigration,  as  the  first  repressive  meas- 
sure  under  the  policy  of  colonial  discipline.  The  first  move 
in  this  direction  was  to  disallow  certain  acts  of  the  colonial 
assemblies  for  the  encouragement  of  immigration.'  Gov- 
ernors were  instructed  from  time  to  time  to  grant  no  lands 
to  new  settlers.  These  prohibitory  instructions  increased 
until  1773,  when  all  naturalization  was  abruptly  ended  by  an 
order  in  council,  forbidding  the  colonial  governors  to  assent 
to  any  bills  of  that  nature;^  and  about  the  same  time  they 
were  instructed  to  issue  no  warrants  to  surveyors,  nor  to  pass 
any  patents  for  lands,  nor  to  grant  any  licenses  to  private 
persons  to  purchase  lands  from  the  Indians.^ 

Not  finding  these  prohibitory  regulations  sufficient.  Parlia- 
ment, in  1774,  passed  a  bill  for  securing  the  "  dependency" 
of  the  colonies,  the  preamble  of  which  sets  forth  that  "  the 
great  increase  of  people  in  the  said  colonies  has  an  imme- 
diate tendency  to  produce  independency,''  after  which  in  the 

1  Documents  relating  to  Colonial  History  of  N.  K,  vii,  474.         "^Ibid.,  x,  411. 
*  New  Jersey  Archives,  x,  402. 


76  COLONIAL  IMMtGRATlON  LAWS  [202 

first  clause  it  proceeded  to  enact  what  was  practically  an 
anti-immigration  regulation.  All  persons  leaving  Great 
Britain  and  Ireland  for  America  with  intent  to  settle  were 
obliged  to  pay  ^^50  per  capita  (children  and  servants  not 
exempted)  ;  while  ship-masters  were  liable  to  a  fine  of  ;^ioo 
for  transporting  any  who  took  passage  without  complying 
with  the  regulations.'  The  former  restrictions  had  prac- 
tically shut  ofT  foreign  immigration,  and  thus  the  develop- 
ment of  the  colonies  from  an  outside  population  was  for  the 
time  being  at  an  end. 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  sets  forth  the  feeling  of 
the  colonists  in  this  matter.  One  of  the  charges  against  the 
King  is  that  he  endeavored  to  prevent  the  populating  of 
"  these  states,"  by  forbidding  naturalization  and  issuing 
other  restrictive  measures.  The  primary  object  of  these 
regulations  was  of  course  to  estabHsh  the  supremacy  of 
Parliament.  Had  matters  turned  out  dififerently,  had  the 
colonists  yielded  and  continued  in  their  dependency,  we 
cannot  but  believe  that  England  would  have  repealed  or 
at  least  greatly  modified  these  measures.  From  the  begin- 
ning of  her  attempts  at  colonization  down  to  the  years  just 
preceding  the  Revolution,  the  policy  of  England  toward 
foreign  immigration  was  one  of  enlightenment  and  generos- 
ity. She  took  steps  to  restrict  it  only  when  her  own  sov- 
ereignty was  questioned. 

'American  Archives  (i774-75)>  673. 


PART  III     REFLECTIVE  ANALYSIS 
CHAPTER  VIII 

DISTRIBUTION    AND    CHARACTERISTICS  OF   NATIONALITIES 

The  foregoing  sketch  of  Colonial  Immigration  Laws  has 
indicated  to  some  extent  the  race  and  national  elements  that 
entered  into  their  immigration  and  their  distribution  among 
the  colonies.  A  more  detailed  study  of  this  part  of  the  sub- 
ject seems  properly  to  belong  to  our  essay,  and  will  prove 
interesting  and  instructive  to  those  who  would  understand 
the  varied  social  and  religious  characteristics  presented  by 
the  American  colonies  at  the  close  of  the  colonial  period. 

It  will  be  unnecessary,  therefore,  in  this  connection  to  do 
more  than  to  mention  the  English  settlers.  With  but  one  or 
two  exceptions,  they  were  the  founders  of  the  colonies  and 
so  formed  the  basis  of  all  secondary  immigration.  As  we 
have  seen,  almost  the  entire  population  of  New  England  was 
English;  and  in  most  of  the  other  colonies  they  outnum- 
bered, or  at  least  equaled,  the  settlers  of  any  other  single 
nationality. 

Next  to  the  English  the  Germans  were  probably  the  most 
numerous.  They  first  began  to  immigrate  to  the  colonies, 
in  appreciable  numbers,  during  the  closing  years  of  the  17th 
century.  About  1764  the  troops  of  Louis  XIV  overran  that 
part  of  Germany  called  the  Palatinate,  a  country  lying  on 
both  sides  of  the  Rhine.  Religious  persecution  followed 
and  thousands  of  Germans  were  practically  driven  from  their 
homes.  We  have  already  shown  how  England  championed 
203]  77 


78  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  [204 

the  Protestant  cause,  and  extended  a  general  invitation  to 
the  persecuted  Protestants  of  all  Europe  to  find  homes  for 
themselves  in  her  American  colonies.  The  well-intentioned 
but  disastrous  attempt  to  settle  a  colony  of  Germans  in  New 
York,  and  the  various  plans  to  divert  them  to  Virginia  and 
the  Carolinas,  have  already  been  described ;  but  Pennsyl- 
vania was  the  central  point  of  settlement  for  the  Germans. 
A  few  of  that  nationality  were  among  the  Quaker  colonists 
who  founded  Philadelphia ;  and  these,  from  time  to  time, 
were  joined  by  others.  About  1715  the  larger  immigration 
set  in,  and  for  the  next  forty  years  a  constant  stream  of  Ger- 
mans landed  at  the  ports  of  Pennsylvania.  The  bulk  of  this 
comparatively  enormous  immigration,  as  already  stated, 
settled  in  the  Quaker  colony,  but  many  of  the  original  immi- 
grants and  thousands  of  their  children  migrated  to  Maryland 
and  Virginia.  The  Carolinas  also  attracted  large  numbers 
of  these  settlers ;  and  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  when 
these  colonies  began  to  offer  generous  inducements  in  grant- 
ing lands,  large  bodies  of  settlers  gave  up  their  homes  in 
Pennsylvania,  and,  driving  their  flocks  and  herds  before 
them,  made  their  way  overland  to  the  Southern  colonies. 
The  only  considerable  settlement  of  Germans  in  New  Eng- 
land was  made  at  Waldoborough,  in  Maine,  about  1739,  and 
there  are  still  many  descendants  of  those  settlers  to  be 
found  in  that  State. 

Next  to  the  Germans  the  Scotch,  Scotch- Irish  and  Irish 
contributed  the  largest  number  of  immigrants  to  the 
American  colonies.  After  the  execution  of  Charles  I., 
the  Scots  took  up  the  cause  of  his  son,  with  the  under- 
standing that,  if  successful,  he  would  protect  them  in 
their  religious  worship.  Cromwell's  victories  soon  put  an 
end  to  their  hopes,  and  several  hundred  Scottish  prisoners 
were  shipped  to  the  colonies.  A  ship  load  of  them  were 
transported  to   Boston  and    became  worthy  citizens  of  the 


205  J  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  NATIONALITIES  jg 

Puritan  colony,  though  they  seem  to  have  made  no  visible 
impression  on  the  community-life.  The  restoration  of 
Charles  II.  failed  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  Scotch. 
Presbyterianism  was  abolished  and  Episcopacy  established 
in  its  stead.  Stringent  laws  were  enacted,  soldiers  quartered 
on  the  defenceless  inhabitants,  and  fines  and  imprisonment 
inaugurated  to  suppress  their  former  worship.  This  severe 
ordeal  drove  thousands  from  their  native  country  into 
Ireland ;  many  emigrated  to  America,  and  years  later  a 
large  proportion  of  the  descendants  of  the  former  sought 
homes  in  the  colonies,  being  known  as  the  Scotch-Irish. 

New  York  was  not  especially  inviting  to  these  immigrants 
on  account  of  the  established  church  of  that  colony.  Still  a 
considerable  number  of  them  located  there  during  the  sec- 
ond quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century,  being  planted  on  the 
lands  along  what  was  then  the  frontier  of  the  colony. 

Pcnn  and  eleven  other  Quakers,  several  of  whom  were 
Scotch,  purchased  East  Jersey,  with  the  view  to  securing  as 
extensive  an  immigration  from  Scotland  as  possible.  Nor 
were  they  disappointed ;  many  from  that  country  and  from 
the  north  of  Ireland  were  induced  to  immigrate  and  settle  in 
that  section.  In  point  of  virtue,  education  and  piety  the 
Jersey  settlers  were  the  equal  of  any  that  sought  these  shores. 
Bancroft  says  "they  gave  the  colony  a  character  which  150 
years  have  not  effaced."  Princeton  University  is  a  monu- 
ment to  their  intellectual  capacity.  But,  as  in  case  of  the 
Germans,  Pennsylvania  received  the  bulk  of  the  Scotch  and 
Irish  immigration.  The  records  show  that  nearly  6,000 
Irish  servants  arrived  in  that  colony  in  1729,  and  that  up  to 
the  middle  of  the  century  the  arrival  of  settlers  from  these 
countries  was  in  the  thousands  each  year.  The  provincial 
historian  Proud  writes,  "  They  have  flowed  in  from  the  north 
of  Ireland  in  very  large  numbers."  They  settled  chiefly  in 
the  eastern  and   middle  parts  of  the  colony.     Cumberland 


8o  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  r2o6 

county  was  almost  wholly  peopled  with  these  emigrants. 
But  they  or  their  descendants  also  migi^ated  in  large  num- 
bers, the  western  parts  of  Maryland,  Virginia  and  the  Caro- 
linas  receiving  the  principal  share. 

Besides  these  migrations,  many  Scotch  and  Irish  settlers 
removed  to  the  Southern  colonies  directly  from  their  native 
countries.  About  1690  Maryland  received  two  hundred 
Scotch-Irish,  who  located  near  the  present  site  of  Washing- 
ton. Five  or  six  hundred  Scotch  settled  near  Fayetteville, 
N.  C,  in  1749,  and  there  was  a  second  arrival  from  the  same 
country  some  six  years  later,'  As  early  as  1684  a  small 
company  of  Scotch  settled  in  South  Carolina.  About  1737 
multitudes  of  husbandmen  and  laborers  from  Ireland  em- 
barked for  that  Province.^  Indeed,  Ramsay  is  authority  for 
the  statement  that  of  all  European  countries  Ireland  fur- 
nished South  Carolina  with  the  greatest  number  of  her  in- 
habitants.3  Georgia,  too,  was  partially  colonized  by  the 
Scotch  and  Irish,  some  of  whom  emigrated  from  Pennsylva- 
nia, although  a  shipload  of  Scotch  Highlanders  went  directly 
there  soon  after  the  settlement  of  the  colony. 

The  immigration  of  the  French  Huguenots  to  America  is 
an  exceedingly  interesting  event  in  the  history  of  the  col- 
onies. Their  name  is  associated  with  many  romantic  efTorts 
to  plant  settlements  on  their  own  account  during  the  sixteenth 
century ;  and  their  arrival  in  the  English  colonies  began 
much  earlier  than  is  generally  supposed.  Massachusetts 
passed  an  act  in  1662  permitting  a  company  of  French 
Huguenots  to  reside  in  that  colony  ;  and  later  a  considerable 
number  of  them  were  granted  lands  and  made  a  settlement 
at  Oxford  in  that  Province.  Rhode  Island  also  received  a 
company  of   these  exiles.     New  York   at  an  early  date  be- 

'  Hodge's  Con's  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  America,  i,  66. 

'Bancroft,  ii,  173. 

*  Ramsay,  i,  20;    ii,  23,  548. 


207]  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  NATIOXALITIES  gj 

came  an  asylum  for  the  French  Protestants.  Even  before 
the  English  conquest  of  New  Netherlands  its  population 
contained  a  considerable  number  of  Huguenot  refugees 
who  had  fled  to  Holland  and  thence  made  their  way  to  the 
Dutch  colony.  New  Rochelle  on  the  East  River  was  settled 
almost  wholly  by  these  immigrants ;  and  Gov.  Dongan, 
writing  about  1687,  mentions  the  arrival  of  Huguenot  fam- 
ilies in  considerable  numbers.  Wm.  Penn  had  agents  in 
London  for  the  purpose  of  inducing  some  of  these  desirable 
settlers  to  locate  in  his  province;  but  not  many  availed 
themselves  of  his  ofTer. 

Every  great  European  event  affected  the  fortunes  of  the 
colonies.  Especially  is  this  observable  in  case  of  the  Revo- 
cation of  the  Edict  of  Nantes.  Thousands  of  Huguenots  left 
France  for  Holland  and  England.  Collections  were  taken  up 
for  them  in  the  latter  country,  and  Parliament  assisted  in 
their  transportation  to  America  by  a  generous  grant  of 
money.  In  1679  Charles  H.  sent  two  shiploads  of  them  to 
South  Carolina,  in  order  to  introduce  the  cultivation  of 
grapes,  olives  and  the  silkworm.  This  was  only  the  begin- 
ning of  a  considerable  stream  of  French  Huguenots  who 
continued  to  pour  into  the  Carolinas  down  to  the  time  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War. 

The  foregoing  nationalities  constituted  the  important  for- 
eign elements  that  entered  into  the  colonial  immigration. 
There  were,  however,  other  nations  represented  in  lesser 
degrees.  The  Dutch  were  numerous  enough  in  eastern  New 
York  to  give  that  region  a  characteristic  social  atmosphere. 
The  Swedes  once  had  a  flourishing  settlement  on  the  Dela- 
ware ;  but  their  numbers  were  too  small  to  make  any  impres- 
sion on  the  colonial  population.  A  small  colony  of  Polish 
Protestants  during  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury made  their  way  to  New  Jersey  and  settled  in  the  valleys 
of  the   Passaic  and    Raritan.     A   few   Jews  found   homes  in 


i'  ^^        <»  Tan    *        „ 


82  COLONIAL  IMMIGRATION  LAWS  [208 

some  of  the  larger  cities,  and  in  Newport  were  numerous 
enough  to  support  a  synagogue.' 

Briefly  summarizing  the  distribution  of  these  nationalities, 
we  observe  that  the  Germans  as  a  rule  settled  along  the  head- 
waters of  the  rivers  flowing  into  the  Chesapeake  and  Dela- 
ware Bays,  and  along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Appalachian 
mountains,  as  far  south  as  Georgia.  The  bulk  of  the  Scotch- 
Irish  entered  the  colonies  at  the  same  ports  as  the  Germans, 
namely,  those  on  the  Delaware  and  Chesapeake  Bays  and 
their  tributaries,  and  located  in  about  the  same  sections  and 
their  future  migrations  took  practically  the  same  direction. 
The  French  Huguenots  made  the  seaboard  districts  of  the 
Carolinas  their  main  point  of  immigration,  though  thty  have 
left  their  impress  on  the  other  colonies  in  which  they  settled. 

Such  were  the  race  elements  and  their  general  distribution 
in  the  colonies.  It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  essay  to  enter 
into  any  detailed  sociological  study  which  this  part  of  the 
subject  naturally  suggests;  but  a  brief  presentation  of  a  few 
of  the  more  obvious  conclusions  may  not  seem  amiss.  For 
general  excellence  first  place  must  be  awarded  to  the  English 
settlers  themselves.  Nor  was  their  supremacy  due  wholly, 
or  in  any  considerable  part,  to  external  circumstances,  such 
as  priority  of  settlement  or  the  backing  of  a  strong  power  in 
Europe.  When  we  consider  the  elements  of  character  which 
experience  time  and  again  proved  to  be  essential  to  the  suc- 
cessful development  of  the  American  colonies,  it  is  clearly 
apparent  that  in  none  of  the  other  nationalities  were  these 
traits  found  so  completely  developed  as  in  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  settlers.  The  moral  and  religious  nature  of  this 
race,  its  characteristic  perseverence,  its  spirit  of  personal 
freedom  and   independence,  its  inherent  capacity  for  indus. 

'  In  this  sketch  I  have  omitted  speaking  of  the  negroes,  although  their  presence 
as  an  element  in  the  colonial  population  has  proved  to  be  the  most  important  and 
insolvable  factor  in  the  problem. 


209]  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  NATIONALITIES  813 

trial  and  political  life,  easily  placed  the  English  settler  ahead 
of  those  from  other  countries. 

The  Germans  surpassed  them  in  laborious  thrift  and  fru- 
gality ;  but  they  lacked  the  political  and  commercial  instincts 
which  centuries  of  training  gave  to  the  Englishman.  A  well- 
tilled  farm  and  a  well-filled  barn  completely  filled  the  horizon 
of  the  Teuton  immigrant ;  he  did  not  aspire  to  build  cities,  to 
found  colleges  or  to  create  governments.  The  French  Hue- 
guenots  excelled  in  simple  and  sincere  piety,  in  refinement 
of  character,  in  the  ability  to  cultivate  and  enjoy  the  luxuries 
of  life.  But  they  lacked  the  indomitable  energy  of  the  Eng- 
lishman who  pushed  his  way  into  the  forests,  felled  the  trees, 
tilled  the  ground,  and  overcame  all  obstacles  by  force  or  tact. 
The  French  immigrant  seldom  isolated  himself  from  his  fellows. 
For  the  most  part  he  settled  in  a  town  or  village,  usually 
near  the  coast  where  the  settlements  were  older,  and  where 
there  were  more  opportunities  for  social  intercourse. 

The  Scotchman  and  Scotch-Irishman  probably  came  near- 
est to  the  Englishman  in  his  general  equipment,  mental  and 
physical,  for  the  life  of  an  American  settler.  He  was  brave 
and  courageous,  inured  to  hardships  and  capable  of  enduring 
the  life  of  a  frontier  colonist,  or,  if  settled  in  a  town,  of  sharing 
in  the  political  and  intellectual  life  of  the  community.  The 
Scotch-Irish  rivalled  the  English  themselves  in  all  those 
essential  elements  which  went  to  make  up  the  typical  colo- 
nist. They  took  their  places  among  the  leaders  in  all  the 
activities  of  colonial  life.  The  Irish  immigrant,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  obviously  no  competitor  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
settler.  His  former  life  had  not  trained  him  in  that  spirit  of 
self-reliance  and  independent  action  which  the  successful 
colonist  needed.  He  was  poorly  fitted  to  begin  the  life  of 
an  independent  farmer,  especially  when  thrown  on  his  own 
resources.  As  a  hired  laborer  he  proved  himself  capable 
and  industrious,  and  usually  began  life  in  his  American 
home  in  that  capacity. 


$4  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  \2\Q 

But  comparisons  aside,  the  unprejudiced  student  can  have 
naught  but  praise  for  the  foreign  immigrants  who  came  to 
America  during  the  colonial  period.  Taken  as  a  whole,  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  world  had  ever  witnessed  an  immigration 
superior  to  this  in  point  of  numbers  and  character.  "They 
were  not  composed  of  the  rich  and  efTeminate,  nor  the  poor 
and  profligate.  They  rather  came  from  that  middle  class  of 
society  which  occupies  the  happy  medium  between  sordid 
poverty  and  overgrown  wealth.  They  knew  that  whatever 
of  comfort  or  enjoyment  they  might  hope  for  in  the  New 
World  was  only  to  be  attained  by  their  own  labor  and  in- 
dustry." They  were  not  an  ignorant  class ;  many  of  them 
were  well  educated,  and  their  general  average  of  learning  was 
high  for  the  age  in  which  they  lived.  They  were  a  religious 
people  and  believed  in  Christianity,  not  as  a  philosophy  but 
as  a  life.  But  why  eulogize  them  further?  Much  that  is  best 
and  noblest  in  America  is  a  monument  to  the  superior 
mental  and  physical  constitution,  the  vigor,  and  deep  relig- 
ious faith  of  the  foreign  immigrants. 

It  would  seem,  on  first  thought,  that  the  intermixture  of 
nationalities  that  settled  in  the  colonies  could  have  had  but 
one  possible  result,  an  inextricable  confusion  of  languages, 
customs  and  institutions,  a  continual  clashing  of  race  pre- 
judices and  religious  beliefs.  But  no  such  result  took  place. 
Indeed,  the  rapidity  with  which  these  people  blended  has 
excited  the  wonder  of  later  historians.  One  reason  for  this 
phenomenon  is  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that  notwithstanding 
the  different  nationalities  represented  yet,  broadly  speaking, 
they  all  belonged  to  the  same  race-stock  or  at  least  to  two 
branches  closely  related ;  namely,  the  Teutonic  and  Celtic. 
A  rough  classification  of  the  colonists  under  these  heads 
would  be  as  follows : 

English  ^  Scotch  >  ^  ,,.  ^        ,5  Teutonic. 

German  J  Teutonic.  ...        ^Celtic.  French^ 

i  Irish       >  C  Celtic. 

Dutch     } 


2  1 1  ]  CHAR  A  C  7'£/?/S7VCS  OF  NA  7  lONALITIES  g  5 

It  has  been  demonstrated  time  and  again  that  these 
nationaHties  when  occupying  the  same  country  amalgamate 
readily ;  that  they  possess  inherent  instincts  for  industrial 
and  political  life,  and,  though  differing  widely  in  language, 
customs,  and  political  institutions,  yet  when  brought  in  con- 
tact have  that  affinity  for  one  another  that  they  easily  blend 
into  a  composite  whole  or  readily  accept  the  life  and  institu- 
tions of  the  stronger  nation/  This,  it  seems  to  me,  explains 
to  a  considerable  extent  the  rapid  and  easy  fusion  and 
blending  of  these  divers  nationalities. 

There  were  of  course  other  causes,  chiefly  external. 
Among  the  most  important  of  these  was  the  economic  en- 
vironment. Generally  speaking,  the  new  settlers  were  im- 
mediately dependent  upon  their  own  exertions  for  a  liveli- 
hood. This  fact  made  it  necessary  that  they  should  adjust 
themselves  to  the  conditions,  and  as  the  economic  life  of 
the  colonists  was  comparatively  simple,  it  meant  a  rapid 
development  toward  uniformity.  Again  the  political  and 
social  environment  tended  to  the  same  end.  It  was  a  new 
world ;  each  settler  seemed  to  feel  that  he  was  helping  to 
build  up  a  new  civilization.  Though  perhaps  largely  un- 
conscious of  it,  they  had  common  aims,  common  hopes, 
and  consequently  common  ties.  The  foreigner  who  set- 
tled in  Massachusetts  or  in  Virginia  felt  very  different  from 
one  who  settled  in  England,  although  the  former  was  sur- 
rounded by  people  as  purely  English  as  those  of  the  mother 
country  itself.  The  difference  lay  in  the  social  environment. 
In  England  he  was  a  stranger  and  had  no  interest  beyond 
that  of  obtaining  a  livelihood  ;  while  in  America  every  oppor- 
tunity was  open  to  him,  every  interest  appealed  to  him,  and 

'  See  Essays  of  Henry  Cabot  Lodge  on  Immigration.  Recent  political  writers 
have  noted  this  fact  in  connection  with  the  immigration  from  1820  to  1880,  and 
have  pointed  out  the  danger  of  permitting  too  great  an  influx  of  Latin  and  Slavic 
races  that  have  formed  a  very  considerable  part  of  our  immigration  since  1880. 


86  COL  ON  I  A  L  IMMIGRA  TION  LAWS  f  2 1 2 

he  felt  that  his  brother  colonist,  though  of  another  nation- 
ality, had  similar  opportunities  and  interests.  In  such 
an  atmosphere  national  ties  or  even  race  lines  counted  for 
little. 

Again,  these  were  British  colonies,  and  the  ofBcial  lan- 
guage was  of  course  English.  In  order  fully  to  enjoy  their 
opportunities,  the  foreign  immigrants  had  to  learn  the  Eng- 
lish language.  In  some  few  instances  they  maintained  their 
own  schools,  but  for  the  most  part  their  children  were 
taught  in  the  English  language.  Thus  a  generation  sufficed 
to  obliterate  to  a  great  degree  race  prejudices  and  foreign 
languages. 

Broadly  speaking,  the  foreign  immigrants  contributed 
nothing  to  the  forms  of  colonial  political  institutions.  Aside 
from  the  Dutch  manors  on  the  Hudson  and  a  few  politico- 
religious  communities  in  Pennsylvania,  the  political  institu- 
tions, both  local  and  provincial,  were  Anglo-Saxon,  modi- 
fied, of  course,  by  economic  and  physical  environment,  but 
losing  or  gaining  nothing  in  form  from  the  thousands  of  for- 
eigners who  immigrated  to  the  colonies.  That  their  pres- 
ence greatly  modified  the  character  of  legislation  is  of 
course  obvious. 

When  we  pass  to  the  social  life  of  the  colonists,  the  influ- 
ence of  the  foreign  element  is  strongly  marked.  The  Ger- 
man immigrant  could  easily  accept  the  English  political  in- 
stitutions of  Pennsylvania,  but  not  so  readily  could  he  adopt 
the  social  life  of  the  Quaker  settlers.  He  dressed  differ- 
ently, he  ate  dififerent  food,  his  home,  his  habits  and  his 
physique  were  all  different ;  and  this,  to  a  considerable  ex- 
tent, was  true  of  the  other  foreign  settlers.  Obviously  the 
general  aspect  of  the  social  life  of  the  colonists  was  far  from 
that  of  the  Anglo-Saxon.  Physical  environment  alone 
would  have  greatly  modified  it,  and,  when  subjected  to  the 
influence  of  such  a  variety  of  nationalities,  the  result  was  a 
composite  product,  distinctly  American. 


213]  CHAR  A  C  TERIS  TICS  OF  NA  TIONALITIES  g  7 

Turning  now  to  the  religious  character  and  institutions  of 
the  colonists,  it  is  apparent  that  the  large  immigration  of  for- 
eigners exerted  a  powerful  influence.  Though  they  were 
chiefly  Protestant,  yet  as  a  rule  they  held  different  beliefs 
and  worshipped  under  different  forms  from  those  of  the 
English  settlers.  The  Germans  represented  a  variety  of 
sects,  but  were  mostly  Lutherans ;  the  Scotch  and  Scotch- 
Irish  were  Presbyterians,  and  the  Huguenots  were  divided 
among  several  sects.  The  presence  of  so  many  denomina- 
tions made  religious  toleration  almost  a  necessity.  The  let- 
ters of  the  Provincial  Governors  in  Maryland  and  Virginia 
reveal  the  embarrassment  of  their  position  in  endeavoring  to 
maintain  a  State  religion.  The  power  to  uphold  such  an  in- 
stitution came  from  without ;  the  spirit  of  the  colonists  them- 
selves was  against  it,  and  it  was  largely  owing  to  this  diver- 
sity of  religious  persuasions  that  the  movement  began  which 
led  to  the  final  separation  of  Church  and  State. 


CHAPTER  IX 


CONCLUSION 


In  conclusion,  the  question  naturally  suggests  itself:  to 
what  extent  did  the  efforts  of  the  colonists  serve  to  foster  or 
to  restrict  immigration.  When  we  consider  the  character  and 
extent  of  foreign  immigration  into  the  colonies,  and  realize 
its  important  and  far-reaching  effects  on  the  destiny  of 
America,  the  query,  how  far  the  colonists  (say  from  1660) 
had  it  in  their  power  to  modify  the  result,  and  how  far  they 
are  to  be  praised  or  blamed  for  the  outcome,  is  one  of  some 
interest. 

As  has  before  been  intimated,  England  abandoned  her 
policy  of  exclusion  from  the  time  of  the  first  permanent  set- 
tlements. The  way,  therefore,  for  a  foreign  immigration  was 
opened  from  the  very  beginning.  The  founding  of  the  colo- 
nies, outside  of  New  England,  was  largely  prompted  by  com- 
mercial motives,  and  the  companies  or  proprietors  were 
anxious  to  secure  settlers,  regardless  of  their  nationality. 
Thus,  when  the  first  popular  assemblies  met  and  the  colonists 
began  to  exercise  some  discretion  in  their  own  affairs,  there 
were  already  enough  foreigners  in  the  country  to  make  an 
appreciable  factor  in  the  community  life.  In  other  words, 
America  has  been  a  cosmopolitan  community  from  the  very 
beginning.  The  efforts  of  the  colonies  to  foster  immigration 
were  unquestionably  effective  in  increasing  it.  The  experi- 
ence of  Pennsylvania  and  some  of  the  Southern  colonies 
during  the  first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  clearly  demon- 
strate that  proposition.     Yet,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 

the  colonies  were  dependent;  and,  as  we  have  seen  from  our 
88  [214 


2  I  r  "I  CONCL  USION  89 

Study,  it  is  to  the  English  government  and  to  the  Proprietors 
of  the  provinces,  that  the  larger  share  of  credit  must  be 
given  for  fostering  immigration. 

But,  although  the  colonists  were  not  free  to  deal  with  the 
matter  as  they  saw  fit,  they  did  occasionally  pass,  and  might 
to  a  much  greater  extent  have  passed,  measures  considerably 
restricting  or  discouraging  this  movement.  That  they  rarely 
assumed  such  an  attitude,  but  on  the  contrary  welcomed  and 
encouraged  the  coming  of  the  foreigners  must  forever  redound 
to  their  credit. 

Omitting,  for  the  moment,  the  Catholics,  the  anti- immi- 
gration laws  passed  by  the  colonial  legislatures  were,  broadly 
speaking,  very  meagre  in  their  efTect  as  restrictive  or  prohi- 
bitive measures.  While  they  effected  in  many  instances  a 
temporary  check  or  diverted  certain  immigrants  to  other 
sections  than  the  ones  they  might  otherwise  have  chosen, 
yet,  considering  the  colonies  as  a  whole,  it  is  not  apparent 
that  they  produced  any  appreciable  effect.  It  must  not, 
however,  be  inferred  from  this  statement  that  these  laws 
were  therefore  useless.  On  the  contrary,  they  were  an  im- 
portant factor  in  the  development  of  colonial  life.  It  was  on 
account  of  these  restrictions  and  prohibitions  that  the  differ- 
ent colonies  were  enabled  to  maintain  their  characteristic 
existence  and  preserve  their  political  and  religious  ideals. 
It  was  because  of  these  measures  that  there  has  been  a 
Massachusetts  and  a  Virginia. 

The  rigorous  measures  of  the  New  England  colonies, 
practically  excluded  immigrants  from  other  nations  than 
England,  and  even  limited  those  from  the  mother  country 
to  persons  of  a  definite  political  and  religious  belief.  While 
they  have  called  forth  bitter  denunciation,  it  was  by  virtue 
of  these  very  measures  that  New  England  has  given  to  the 
country  the  ideals  of  government  and  social  order  that 
have  made  America  what  she  is  to-day,  and  has  preserved 


go  COL ONIAL  IMMIGRA TION  LAWS  \2\6 

until  the  present  day  the  characteristic  local  institutions  of 
the  Puritans, 

Turning  now  to  the  Catholics,  it  is  at  once  evident  that  the 
colonial  regulations  against  them  were  very  effective.  Had 
encouragement  been  offered  or  even  had  there  been  no  pro- 
hibitions placed  on  their  immigration,  it  is  not  an  unfair  as- 
sumption to  make  that  a  very  considerable  number  of  that 
class  would  have  found  their  way  to  the  colonies.  As  it  was, 
the  drastic  measures  along  various  lines  that  were  passed 
against  them  practically  amounted  to  an  exclusion. 

There  are  those  who  consider  this  the  most  important  fact 
ift  colonial  history,  and  assert  that  America  was  possible 
only  on  a  Protestant  basis.  What  effect  the  presence  of  a 
large  Catholic  population  distributed  throughout  the  colo- 
nies or  of  a  strong  Catholic  colony  might  have  had  during 
the  critical  periods  of  American  history  in  the  eighteenth 
century  is  only  a  matter  of  conjecture.  So  much  is  certain 
during  one  period :  they  were  hostile  to  George  III.,  and 
American  independence  had  no  more  staunch  supporters 
than  the  Catholics  of  Maryland. 

Their  political  independence  secured,  and  vast  tracts  of 
unsettled  lands  added  to  their  boundaries,  it  is  not  surprising 
that  the  American  people  again  looked  to  Europe  for  settlers 
to  people  these  extensive  domains ;  and  so  they  continued 
to  offer  free  homes  and  political  privileges  to  foreign  immi- 
grants. There  were,  however,  some  who  favored  restrictions 
on  further  immigration.  To  their  minds  the  problem  had 
changed  since  1760,  A  new  government  had  been  created 
with  institutions  essentially  unlike  anything  the  European 
immigrant  had  ever  experienced.  It  was  feared  that  they 
would  misunderstand  and  misuse  the  liberties  granted  to 
them. 

Jefferson,  writing  to  a  friend  about  1783,  touched  on  the 
problem    thus :    "  But  are  there    no   inconveniences  to  be 


217]  CONCL  USION  9 1 

thrown  into  the  scale  against  any  advantage  expected  from 
a  multiplication  of  numbers  by  the  importation  of  foreigners? 
It  is  for  the  happiness  of  those  united  in  society  to  harmon- 
ize as  much  as  possible  in  matters  which  of  necessity  they 
must  transact  together.  Civil  government  being  the  sole 
object  of  forming  societies,  its  administration  must  be  con- 
ducted by  common  consent.  Every  species  of  government 
has  its  specific  principles.  Ours,  perhaps,  are  more  peculiar 
than  those  of  any  other.  It  is  a  composition  of  the  freest 
principles  of  the  English  Constitution  with  others  derived 
from  natural  right  and  natural  reason.  To  these  nothing 
can  be  more  opposed  than  the  maxims  of  absolute  mon- 
archies. Yet,  from  such  we  are  to  expect  the  greatest 
number  of  immigrants.  They  will  bring  with  them  the 
principles  of  the  governments  they  leave,  or  if  able  to  throw 
them  off,  it  will  be  in  exchange  for  an  unbounded  licentious- 
ness, passing,  as  usual,  from  one  extreme  to  the  other. 
These  principles,  with  their  language,  they  will  transmit  to 
their  children.  In  proportion  to  their  numbers,  they  will 
share  legislation  with  us.  They  will  infuse  into  it  their 
spirit,  warp  or  bias  its  direction,  and  render  it  a  heterogen- 
eous, incoherent,  distracted  mass." ' 

Thus  reasoned  the  "  Sage  of  Monticello."  In  such  a 
menacing  aspect  did  the  problem  of  immigration  present 
itself  to  his  mind.  It  is  rather  curious  that  the  question 
did  not  come  up  in  the  Constitutional  Convention  of  1787. 
Jefferson  was  out  of  the  country  at  the  time,  but  there  must 
have  been  others  who  shared  his  views.  If  there  were  any 
such,  they  apparently  took  no  steps  to  embody  their  ideas 
in  the  Constitution ;  and  the  new  government  was  wisely  or 
unwisely  launched  on  its  career  free  to  the  nations  of  the 
world. 

'  Notes  on  Virginia,  152. 


VITA 


The  author  of  this  dissertation,  Emberson  Edward  Proper, 
was  born  in  Western  Pennsylvania,  Aug.  14th,  1864,  and 
received  his  early  education  in  the  public  schools  of  Titus- 
ville.  Pa.,  graduating  from  the  High  School  in  1882.  After 
spending  the  three  following  years  in  North  Dakota, 
engaged  at  first  in  teaching  and  afterward  in  business,  he 
returned  to  his  native  state,  and  in  the  fall  of  1885  entered 
Allegheny  College,  Meadville,  Pa.,  from  which  institution  he 
was  graduated  with  the  class  of  '89.  During  the  years  '90 
and  '91  Mr.  Proper  was  employed  as  instructor  in  the 
Titusville  High  School,  and  in  the  fall  of  '91  entered  the 
Graduate  School  of  Harvard  University,  taking  courses  in 
History,  Economics  and  Administrative  Law,  He  received 
the  degree  A.  M.  in  '92,  and  was  appointed  to  a  Thayer 
Scholarship  and  also  Assistant  in  Colonial  History  under 
Prof.  Channing.  Mr.  Proper  was  a  member  of  the  Harvard 
Graduate  Club,  the  International  Law  Club,  and  the 
Seminar  in  American  History  and  Institutions. 

During  the  campaign  of  1892,  in  co-operation  with  Mr. 
Dallinger,  now  a  state  senator  of  Massachusetts,  Mr.  Proper 
compiled  and  published  the  "  Voters'  Pocket  Manual," 
which  enjoyed  a  wide  circulation  throughout  the  country. 
In  1894  he  was  elected  instructor  in  history  in  Murdock 
Academy,  Winchendon,  Mass.,  and  the  following  year  was 
appointed  to  the  chair  of  history  in  Lawrence  Univ.,  Canton, 
N.  Y.     In  1897  Mr.  Proper  came  to  New  York,  and  for  the 

(93) 


V 


94 


y/TA 


past  three  years  has  held  the  position  of  teacher  of  history 
in  the  Boys'  High  School,  Brooklyn. 

Mr,  Proper  entered  Columbia  University  in  the  fall  of 
1899,  taking  courses  under  Professors  Mayo-Smith,  Good- 
now  and  Osgood.  The  foregoing  dissertation  was  begun, 
while  a  student  at  Harvard  University,  as  a  study  of  the 
attempts  of  the  colonists  to  restrict  and  prohibit  immigra- 
tion ;  but  so  much  interesting  material,  on  the  side  of  the 
encouragement  of  immigration,  came  to  light  that  it  was 
deemed  advisable  to  treat  the  subject  in  both  phases  under 
the  title  of  "  Colonial  Immigration  Laws." 


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